Two months

Two months from today till I touch down in Sydney! I'm so excited but sad at the same time. When we went out with Javi and his friends on Saturday, I realised it will be one of the last times I do that because Lisa comes next Sunday and then we'll be travelling during the Christmas break. (Clockwise from left: Beza, Louis, Reuben, Fernando, me, Emily)

I've been lazing on my arse for the last week or so. Mel left for the Netherlands on Tuesday and without her around I don't have anyone to prod me to go to class (although usually I ignore her anyway). And Emily was in Madrid so there was no one I had to meet up with so unless I was out of food or going to the gym, I didn't leave the house at all. However, that will all change once Mel returns (which I think is tonight some time). (Photo: Reuben exorcising a demon from his lungs, Fernando trying to look like a 90 year old hag)

Last night the Croissant made dinner for us and we opened a bottle of rose which she made in her enologia class. It was a pretty good wine- very surprised. She's moving out this week and I'm a bit horrified to discover that I don't actually mind her any more and that I might miss her a bit. But she wants to come over and use our internet so I guess it won't be the last of her. She's moving in with two 18 year old Spanish girls. I feel sorry for her already. (Photo: Bobi, me and Andres)

Had a very constructive day. Tried to make a bat from recycled material with empty coke cans for wings but got a shard of aluminium can in my eye so I decided to make a ballerina instead. Or a punk, haven't decided which. It's one of those toys where you pull the strings and it waves its arms. But not being very good at engineering/physics, I can't make it wave properly. It sort of flails. So then I gave up on that and made an adorable little monkey from an empty yoghurt can and was papier mache-ing it when Gian came along and said 'What a pretty rat.' (Photo: Em and Javi, Fernando continuing with his impersonation of a 90 year old hag)

Found!

I found my Lost Underwear!!! They were crouched behind my swimmers in my drawer. Very exciting. It's the highlight of my week because now I can put off washing my clothes for a few more days.

My cat puppet is called Dr. Perejil and perches on my hand when I'm at home and acts as my psychologist. It's usually quite nasty and tells me off for losing things but it also tells me it's ok to leave dishes unwashed in the sink, especially if they're not mine.

I went to see my doctor again this morning. He is definitely a very peculiar looking man. He's practically bald, has large, drooping jowls and big pointy ears that stick out from his head. They resemble those of Legolas so much it's freaky, except they're much larger and stick out more. He looks like a cross between a pixie and a goblin. But very friendly. And he doesn't speak with an unintelligible regional accent.

Last night the Croissant couldn't sleep and I was in the kitchen, reading, so she came in and started talking to me. Then the Boy joined us and we stayed up till almost 4, chatting.

I love my art class

After many many sleepless nights, I have finally finished my art projects for my art class. The cat is a puppet- very beautiful I have to admit, especially since I'm awful at sewing and I had to sew the two sides of the body together. I superglued it to the head and accidentally superglued my hand to it as well but I finally detached myself, along with a few layers of skin. I love superglue. I once superglued a red frog to my friend's notebook in class when I was bored. It was so he wouldn't have to remember to bring lollies to class, he could just lick the cover of his notebook.

I was going to make a demon instead of a cat because I thought it would be funny to scare my sister's child with it but Em and Mel told me it was too cruel. The penguin is for Allen for Christmas. It's SOOOOO CUTE!!! It's one of those toys where you push it but it stand back upright when you let go. The body is made from a small light bulb. I spent forever trying to separate the metal part from the glass without breaking it, and then chipping away the inside bit that has the tiny wires. The first one cracked and I threw it at the wall in a fit of rage.

Our next project for this class is some sort of toy made from recyclable material. I thought about getting two empty cans and some string to make those stilt-like things that you can stand on and walk about on but it seems to be a bit of a cop out because they're so easy to make.

Segovia

It was so hard to get up this morning. We got home from the hot springs at about 1:30 am. Em was hiring a car so we could drive to Segovia and then tomorrow she, Chris and Tamara are heading to San Sebastian. Stefano decided he wanted to come to Segovia as well so he took his car with Javi, Gian and Alexis. We left for Segovia at 10:30 am ish but didn't get there till four hours later. I was sitting between Mel and Tamara and they both started feeling carsick because the road was so windy and I was petrified one or both of them would throw up on me.

Had lunch at this dodgy place called Disnei Bar which sold hamburgers for really cheap (when we ate them we found out why). Walked around a bit, saw the cathedral, then went to the castle. Segovia is famous for its aquaducts (which are cool- you walk through them to get to the old town), cathedral and castle apparently. The castle was very attractive but by the time we went up the tower, it was almost 6 pm and freezing so I wasn't too upset that it was closing time. (Photo clockwise from left: Gian, Stefano, Chris, Javi, Alexis, me, Em, Mel and Tamara)

We got back home just before midnight. This time, we didn't take the windy, mountainous road but went through Burgos, which is a longer route but is mostly freeway and straight. It was Javier's birthday on Thursday and Sevi's yesterday so all the boys were out celebrating and getting drunk. I felt bad that we couldn't go join them but we were all dead tired. It's not like I did much today besides walk around Segovia and sit in a car for eight hours but I just felt totally slumped.

Busy busy

I've had the best weekend in ages but now I'm completely exhausted. Em's friend Tamara came to visit so we got to do heaps of cool stuff. On Wednesday, we finally climbed the mound/hill/mini mountain in Logrono. It took us less than an hour to get up the top, despite it looking so high and scrubby. We were going to have a picnic at the top but there was no wind cover and it was freezing so we moved down a bit but the ground was covered in prickly plants and things and it was very uncomfortable. We moved down a bit more and by this time we were practically at the bottom anyway. But someone had grown a vineyard on the hill so we sat in it and ate.

Quique, one of the students going to UTS next year, had organised to drive us to a wine museum so we met him at the uni at 9 am on Friday. The museum also had a bodega and the most amazing views ever. The photo on the left was one of the views you get of the vineyards behind the museum walls. They also have a crazy corkscrew collection and some original Picasso paintings, amongst other things. We got a free glass of wine at the end but I didn't like it that much. (Photo: Em, me, Mel and Tamara).

We then went to see a hotel designed by the same architect who designed the Guggenheim in Bilbao. Very interesting, if hideous. Absolutely didn't go with the backdrop at all. And the town it's in is practically a ghost town. We walked through it for half an hour and saw three people at most. I have no idea why anyone would want to stay there.

That night, Javier (not the one who went to UTS, a crazy guy who likes to hang out with international people) invited us to his parents' house in Arnedo and we had the biggest dinner imaginable. I swear I ate my body weight in food. They had a fire and a fire oven so his parents roasted potatoes, garlic, chicken drumsticks, chicken wings, pork ribs, pig snouts, mushrooms, eggs, some other kind of meat and apples and we also had bread, salad, homemade marinated capsicum, brownies and tiramisu (it was Tamara's birthday). And lots of wine, coke, champagne, beer and a homemade berry liquour. Afterwards we went to the natural hot springs. There are four temperatures: very hot, quite warm, comfortable and freezing. It was all outdoors so we had the mountains and stars in the background. Luckily the only light came from the moon because I was so bloated from the food I'm glad no one could see me.

The Croissant has arrived

Our new flatmate came today. She's staying for 8 months and has enough stuff to fill two rooms. Pity she got the smallest room YAHA HAHAHAH HAHAHA HAHAHAHA HAHAHA. She's the one with the horrible mum and I have to say I feel like she's taken after her mother in that respect- she's horrible. We've decided to call her the Croissant (pronounced Croy-son) because she's french and is a bit like a croissant. All right to look at but makes you feel sick if you go anywhere near it. She just has the most pompous, patronising, pretentious way of speaking.

Lisa sent me this photo of Gryffin. He's so beautiful.

Ghengis will never be forgotten

He has passed away. It was an awful shock to my system and I ran shrieking to Mel's room to tell her the news at 6 am in the morning. She told me not to give up hope, that perhaps he was hibernating but when we looked again a few hours later he was indeed deceased. I keep asking myself why. What did we do wrong? Was it because he was anorexic and never ate? Was he just too young? Was he not destined to stay in this world for long? Perhpas it would have been better if we'd never had him. I loved him so dearly. So tiny and yet with such a large personality.

We skipped the uni party and had a funeral for him. Mel read an Emily Dickinson poem ('A death blow is a life blow to some'- one of her few not-too-depressing ones), I said a few words and we closed the casket and drifted him to sea on the Rio Ebro. We found a casket that actually had a turtle on the lid and we put a few shrimps in with him so he wouldn't feel so alone. Goodbye, my unique little friend.

Mondayitis

I think it's called Mondayitis. The disease people get when they feel like they can't get up on a Monday morning and go to work. Except I think I just have Dayitis because it doesn't happen on a Monday to me, it happens every day. The only reasons I get up are because a) I need to pee and b) I need to check how Ghengis Khan is. He fell asleep mid-crawl when he was sliding off a rock into the water so he ended up sleeping with his face in the water and his shell/body still on the rock. I thought he'd died so I splashed water on him and he looked up at me irritably and went back to sleep.

I ran out of clean underwear the other day because I couldn't be bothered washing my clothes and I realised I had become a true bum. I decided I could a) not wear underwear b) buy some more so I could put off washing for a few more days c) steal someone else's d) hope that clean underwear would inexplicably rain down on me from the sky. I went with option d) and I'm still waiting. Actually, I did end up washing my clothes and just wore them wet which is not cool. Very uncomfortable.

I also flew into a rage on Saturday night and threw a wine bottle (empty) against my wall and then bashed my bed with my pillow. My poor flatmate who was watching TV in the room next door must have thought I had become a psychotic bottle destroying maniac because he now sidles out of the room whenever I enter it. I'm not mad, I'm expressive.

Vomitorio

This was where we sat for the soccer match. It sounds so Latin. 'Let's meet at the vomitorio after lunch for a regurgitatingly great time.'

Completely irrelevantly, I'm amazed at my ability to look awful on camera. It's a skill I've cultivated over the years and the hard work has finally paid off. Em and Mel aren't so bad themselves.

Pump classes have come to Logrono! I didn't realise how much I missed them till I felt my butt muscles ache from the lunges. It's amazing how fast muscles can atrophy in 9 months. My competitive streak really comes out in this class. After 2 weeks, I increased the weights and the instructor asked me 'What weights are you using? I'll use them too' and increased his weights so I increased them again this week and now I can barely move. But really, I just want big muscles so I can hit people and really hurt them. There's this girl we nicknamed TGB (Temperamental German Bitch) because she's temperamental, bitchy and happens to be from Germany. Anyway, I wouldn't mind hitting her but she's twice my size so I have to make sure if I do ever whack her that I hit her so hard she lands far enough from me that I have time to run away.

Real Madrid vs. Bucharest

Yesterday was absolutely fantastic (except for the part where I had to wake up at 6:30 am). For only 30 euros, we got a bus to and from Madrid and tickets to see the soccer match between Real Madrid and Bucharest. Met up with Monique and Beth for lunch at The Wok (YAY! ASIAN FOOD! ASIAN FOOD!) which was the best meal I'd had in ages, despite the fact that we waited more than an hour for it, so I basically didn't eat all day till 3 pm, by which time my stomach had shrunk so I could barely fit it all in. But I still managed to crawl next door with Em, Beth and Monique for a Starbucks chai latte while Mel and Alexis went to the Reina Sofia.

The game started at 8:45 and our seats were in the last row but one, but near the halfway line so we still managed to see everything pretty well. Bucharest played better in the first half and then in the second half Ronaldo and Beckham came on and they lagged. Someone on the Madrid team scored an accidental goal- one of those really slow motion ones that sort of just roll across the white line while everyone freezes and watches it. The Bucharest goalie nearly killed himself, he was so upset. Just the atmosphere of being at the game of one of the best soccer teams in the world was fantastic. I have decided though, that when I become world dictator, I'm going to ban those hooting things that fans have at the games. They are the most irritating, eardrum popping, horrible inventions of all time, along with nuclear bombs.

Real Madrid won 1-0 because Bucharest just kept missing goals by inches. The end of a game is always such an anticlimax because all the players just stop and start shaking hands. Unless someone scores a goal 2 seconds before the end or falls down dead. We headed back to Logrono at 11:30, got home before 4 am and I spent most of today sleeping. I have become the most incredible bum ever. I had no food left in the house (and I'd eaten practically all of Mel's) but I couldn't be bothered changing out of my dressing gown to walk half a minute down the street to the supermarket. I eventually did because I wanted to check if my package from Allen had arrived and Mel promised to buy me a kinder surprise egg if I went.