Learning...

As discontent as I've been feeling lately, I'm realizing that I've been learning so much here. And that's good. Very good. I like to learn. Yesterday I learned a lot.

1) The Hepatitis B Virus can live in dried blood for up to a week: So I've been working on these online Swiss Village training session things when I have time. Yesterday I learned all about infectious diseases. But more interesting than that is the fact that the day before I did a session about dementia. That was Monday morning, and every Monday night I go to the convent. It was really interesting to go there and try to apply the things I have learned from Swiss Village. I'm realizing that interacting with dementia patients is so much more difficult when there is a language barrier. It is hard for me to know which people are saying things that nobody can understand and which people are saying things that only I am unable to understand. I am looking forward to returning to nursing homes where I can truly interact with people. But at the same time this has been a very good experience.

2) "Parasol" means "Sun-stopper": I'm not sure why I found this so interesting, but in Art class yesterday we saw a Goya painting of a boy holding a parasol over a girl. In Spanish, a parasol is a "Quita Sol" (basically "gets rid of the sun" or something) as opposed to a regular umbrella which is a "paraguas" (stops water). But in the middle of class, it occurred to me that "parasol" must mean "stops the sun." Hmm...Language excites me!

3) Good things come when you least expect them: I had absolutely no reason to think that I would be getting a package yesterday. I mean, I always eagerly peruse the mail table, but I try not to get my hopes up too high. Yesterday I was so very pleasantly surprised to find a box full of treats (including fish crackers just in time for fish cracker day today!) from my family. Yay!

4) You can't actually eat in the Alcazar: Erin, Sarah, and I had planned to have a picnic in the Alcazar (Castle gardens that are beautiful! Also, sometimes affectionately known as "Alcatraz" because that's easier to pronounce than Alcazar with an Andalucian lisp.) Sarah and Erin bought some food at the market and met me after class, we went into the garden and got all set up, and a guard came and told us that we weren't allowed to eat there. Oops. But we moved our happy little picnic out to the Plaza del Triunfo which was nice as well. It's been pretty hot here the past couple days though. I'm not sure if I'd rather have that or the snow I hear they're expecting back home.

5) Medium sized popcorn is definitely big enough: During the first weekend of the semester Sarah, Erin, Michelle, and I participated in a photo scavenger hunt from the school. We won (!) and received free movie tickets (including popcorn and soda!). So last night, Sarah and I finally went to the movies. Historically when Sarah and I go out, if she orders, we always get the wrong size. (For example, twice we've gotten a lot less ice cream than we wanted because I let Sarah order.) But it's a good thing that I ordered last night because otherwise we would have ended up with Grande popcorn instead of Medium. Medium was enough even for someone who loves popcorn as much as I do. It was pretty good. And somewhat interestingly, it was the first time I've ever gotten refreshments in a movie theater. (Oh, the things we do when spending money that isn't ours!)

6) I know a bit more Spanish than I thought: Sarah and I bought tickets for "El Curioso Caso de Benjamin Button." We weren't sure if it was going to be in English or Spanish. It was in Spanish. But we were actually really glad of that. We were surprised how much we were able to understand. I mean, I'm sure we missed some things, but for the most part we followed pretty well. That made me feel really good about myself and my (slowly) increasing Spanish abilities. Yay! I enjoyed the movie a lot more than I thought I would. It was a fun way to spend an evening.

7) Neither the buses nor the metro run at night: It was about 11:30 when we got out of the movie, and we were going to hop on the bus to come home. But when we got on, the bus driver said he couldn't take us because it was too late. So we got off. We were going to take a night bus, but we didn't want to wait so we just walked. We hadn't walked from Nervion since the time we did it with Shirel so we weren't exactly sure if we would be able to find our way. But we did it. Another thing to feel good about!

8) Taking the Los Remedios bridge is not the best way to get back to Triana: The funny thing was that though we didn't get lost on our way from Nervion, I did get a little lost after dropping Sarah off. She lives in the neighborhood Los Remedios. I live in Triana. I've been in Los Remedios many times, but for some reason I got kind of twisted around last night. I'll blame it on the streets that don't run at right angles. I thought I knew where I was headed, but then all of a sudden I was in a completely different street. But I found my way home and lived to tell about it.

Yep. I think that's it. There was much to learn yesterday. I guess there is always much to learn. So that's why I have to try to keep enjoying this. I just have to keep chugging along for about 3 more weeks. 3 weeks? I think I can handle that.