January 29

1-29
I just played a Solitaire game on my computer with a store of 725! That’s the highest score I’ve had in a long time! Mom and I used to have competitions with who could get the highest score. I got 735 once which was like 20 points higher than either of us before, and then mom got 740 within a week or two. I was so upset! But I’m rather proud of my little 725. J
Anyway.
I talked to Patricia yesterday about the living room thing with my señora. She didn’t look happy, and said it was unusual. I said I might have misunderstood some of it, and she encouraged me to ask outright if it was ok if I sat in the living room and read or something. I’m not going out tonight, so I think I’ll try it then. I’m so nervous to ask her anything like that now. But I’m just going to suck it up and do it. Maybe if they’re watching the news or something it’d be ok.
Last night some of the girls and I were going to go to a Flamenco bar that Hannah’s tour book said was free. I thought that would be fun so I agreed to go. It didn’t start until 10:30 so I knew it would probably be a late night. We found out soon before then that you need reservations and it’s not free to see the show. So they said they were going to go somewhere else. I thought they meant another flamenco, so I still went. But no. They wanted to go to bars and clubs. We first went to a really cute restaurant for sangria, but we were required to order two things of raciones with drinks, so it ended up being a lot more expensive than any of us expected, And the sangria was really strong and not very good. After that we went to a club. Actually it was the same club we went to the other day, but it was almost deserted last time and it was Ladies’ Night last night so it was busy. I have come to the conclusion that if I never go to another club in my life, it would be totally fine. There’s loud music, flashing lights, big crowds, lots of smoke, and drunken people. The music is so loud that you can’t hear the people you’re talking to, and the people are so loud that you can’t understand the music. The only things to do are drink and dance, and I don’t like to do either. So I’m not going to go out again.
I talked with my señora this morning about my diet and what I can and can’t eat. I told her that I had been losing weight for a year and a half by not eating carbs and I had taken it easy for the first week to experience Spanish food, but now I needed to crack down. She asked some questions, and then started talking about how this complicates her cooking and how if she’d know about it she would have given me to another señora who was more used to cooking for diets. I was like: oh thanks a lot. I don’t feel unwelcome enough here, so just tell me that you don’t want to have to deal with my diet and you’d prefer I lived somewhere else! I wrote on the housing sheet that I didn’t eat carbs, but I also said I didn’t think it would be a problem because I can usually find something to eat in every meal. So I guess they didn’t tell her at all. That was my mistake. I should have been more insistent with it. I think it probably would have been ok, because she does serve some things I can eat, but she pushes the food on me so much that it’s more difficult. I’m used to where the food is in the middle and you can just take what you want, but she serves only one course at a time, so if it’s spaghetti or something that I can’t eat at all, it’s already on my plate and probably considered tainted, instead of being in the communal bowl. She understood that I can’t eat macaroni, but she was going on about spaghetti and how that would be ok because the noodles are so thin and the sauce is all natural tomatoes and stuff. I told her I can’t eat spaghetti and she went back into the thing about complicating her life. She also talked about how I can just eat the regular stuff but smaller portions. Which is partially true, but even a half a piece of bread has as many carbs as I can have in probably two meals. It was a very awkward conversation. I think that she’ll comply up to a certain point, and the rest of it I’ll just have to not eat it. If I leave it enough maybe she’ll finally get the idea that I won’t eat it. She said her daughter was on a diet once, but it was so long ago that she doesn’t remember what she ate, but it was a lot of natural stuff. Natural is all well and good if it’s the right things. I did tell her not to buy any more yogurt, and then she was like, well what about the natural stuff which doesn’t have any sugar or fruit in it, and I wasn’t really sure about that because I’d never had it. So I said I would try and see if I like it. I’ll probably just tell her I don’t like it. I have my doubts about even natural yogurt. Anyway, I hope it turns out ok. I feel like everything I do pushes her buttons in some way, and I’m not even hard to live with. Except for the food thing, I guess. This morning she told me to be careful not to bump my purse on the doorframe. My cloth purse. What’s it going to do, leave a dent? Scratch the wood? I don’t understand. Oh, and she also asked me to turn off my computer when I leave, which I understand because it saves energy and they’re really energy conscious here. But that wasn’t even the reason she gave. She wanted me to turn it off because it gets hot when it’s on. Because the heat from my computer is going to scorch the table or burn down the apartment. I don’t have a problem doing it, it was just a weird reason.
I feel like I’ve done nothing but complain on these blogs; I’m sorry for that. I really am enjoying the city. Today we didn’t have any activities with AYA. We were going to go to a real flamenco tonight but she found a different one that was either better or cheaper (I’m not sure which one) for next Friday. So today was all free time. I got to sleep in until 10! That was exciting for me. Then Katie and I went shopping around Sol. There are a lot of really quaint shops. We went in one that was selling all the decorations for churches like statues of Mary and Jesus, and bibles and ornate pedestals and stuff like that. It was a lot of really beautiful stuff, but I felt like I shouldn’t touch anything. Katie’s mom wanted her to get her a rosary, so she found one for 9 euros, which was a lot cheaper than I thought it would be considering the nature of the store. There were lots of touristy shops that were fun. I bought a little spoon with a picture of the royal palace for my collection. We also found a party/costume shop which was really fun. They have so many American cartoons and shows on their balloons and plates and stuff. There were Pirates of the Caribbean, the Disney princesses, Winnie the Pooh (which I think is actually originally English) and a lot of other things like that. They also had sets of plastic breasts with elastic to strap to your body. It was so weird. They’re a lot freer with that kind of stuff here. We ate at a cute little deli that had really good salad. It’s called Rodillas, which means ‘knees.’ I don’t know what that’s about. We also went to Fnac, which is a huge store that’s like a Best Buy and a bookstore all in one. I think it had 5 floors. We had fun looking at the Spanish translations of all the American movies. Some of them were exact translations, but a lot were completely different. For example, there are posters everywhere for Role Models, but they call it “Mal ejemplo” which means Bad Example, and takes all the irony out of the title. It seemed like most of the movies there were American. It really tampers with the concept of being in a foreign country when there’s so much that’s familiar.
Tomorrow we’re going to Toledo! I’m so excited. It’s supposed to be one of the more historic, beautiful cities. It’s smaller than Madrid and I think it’s about an hour away by bus. I can’t wait.
I’ll let you know how the confrontation with Rosaura goes. Bethany