Details

So life is in the details or something like that right? I'm going on a month now and I thought I would share a few of life's little details that are everyday things, but make a significant (or at least seemingly significant) part of my life over here. There is no order to the these and some may not even be interesting, like this first one:

The dirt on the floor. The floor of my room seems to be always dirty. It is a wood floor that always looks pretty nice, until you put a bare foot on it. While walking either bare foot or in socks I seem to collect a nice little layer of dust and dirt on my feet. I can't seem to do anything about it. Even one minute after sweeping, it all comes back. I have no idea where it comes from, because I consider myself a clean person for the most part, but the dirt here just seems to reproduce out of nothing. I have given up and am trying to live with it. Maybe in the future I can come up with a method to dust proof my room, but that day has not come. For now the dust wins.

A thought on school. My classes here are actually very difficult. I haven't actually worried so much about a class in a very long time, even when I've been in difficult classes, I knew that if I studied enough then I could still do well. Here I just don't know. The economics classes I am taking are all using a lot of calculus that I haven't used in about 2 years... and not being able to do that puts a big hindrance on my ability to do the homework, exercises, etc... and eventually the tests. Fortunately I know people in all my classes who can help me out, but I really don't think I did a good job of picking classes that are on my level. I'm considering going to a class tomorrow for the first time (classes have been going for 3 weeks) because I think it will be easier than my others, and it might be nice to have a back up class.

Homework. Another thing that makes it almost impossible to do my homework is that I feel that I am still on vacation mode. I'm in a foreign country having fun, so homework? It is not a high priority and even when that is all I have to do, I still find ways not to. My previous experiences abroad have all ended at about this time, one month. And even in my study abroad in Japan we didn't really do much work while over there, it was all before or after. Unfortunately I don't have that luxury over here, all the work must be done here, for better or for worse. I'm afraid it is going to be all for the worse for me. Hopefully I can start to buckle down, but so far it has been very difficult to convince myself that is really necessary. What is more important my Macro II homework or an afternoon at the Retiro park? Retiro will win almost every time.

People. For those of you back home, I have made new friends, but don't worry, they will never replace the friendship we have together. Yes I am talking to you. Ok well now that we have that settled, the people over here are great, and it is very easy to meet new people all of the time. I have ended up spending most of my time with other exchange students, and unfortately most of them speak English better than Spanish, so I feel like my language ability hasn't progressed as fast as it should have. But on the bright side, almost none of them are American. So if I have to talk in Enlgish, it is better to do so with non-Americans. I need to spend time with more Spaniards, but the other exchange students are so darn cool and so much fun to hang out with. Making a transition will be a hard one, and maybe not even possilbe. I think I am just going to try and speak more Spanish with them, because most of them feel the same way I do about the whole situation. So let's hope for the best when it comes to my Spanish speaking ability!

Cold. I've been stuggling with a cold since about Thursday, so about 4 days now. I'm still not sure if it is getting much better. Even a little cold makes it very difficult to enjoy things. It is hard to enjoy dinner with friends when you are holding back coughs, struggling to breathe, and can't even taste the food. I've been pumping myself full of Musinex and Dayquill, but those only help so much, and my supply is limited. I hope I get better soon so I can enjoy more of these little details.

And I just got back from an Islands concert tonight (former band members of the Unicorns). It was a very good show and I'm enjoying finding all of the cool, little concert venues in Madrid. Maybe I can even become a regular at one? We shall see.

Oh and another great detail I forgot to include in my last post was that after spliting up from my group after the Star Wars Exhibiton, I had to go across a very large metro station. As I was going up a long escalator I thought I heard a familiar sound. And yes I did! It was the famous chords from the Final Countdown. Already on my Star Wars high, I became even more excitied when I saw the street performer playing the final countdown on his electric guitar at the top of the escalator. It made the day perfect. And I gave him a Euro for the joy he gave me. One Euro is a small price to pay for the perfect ending to a great day. Well it is late and I need a little sleep, so goodbye for now.