My neck hurts.

I woke up today super effing early so I could get to my first day of the 830 AM class that I unfortunately decided I really like and won´t be dropping. Somewhere in the middle of that class my neck started freaking out on me. I probably slept on it wrong and I want it to go away ASAP. It is super annoying especially because I am super aware of it since I have this ginormous break between classes that isnt quite ginormous enough to go back home and come back up to the facultad. So instead I have been rewriting my notes from class (since my latent guilt of the worst academic semester of my life last cuatrimestre haunts me and propels me to kick scholastic ass this semester), eating )the workers in the cafeteria are giving me weird looks since I went in there like 4 times), and reading the newspaper (which I dont think I have ever really done before). Now, as you can tell, Im blogging. Time wasting has never been so unwanted before. But I suppose I should get used to it since I will be up on campus at 830 AM until 830PM every Monday and Wednesday. I think I´m going to be super guiri and take a nap on a bench or outside or something. I think if I dont I will possibly die in one of my later classes today. Hasta que te veo en mis sueños.

Matteo: trasladado

Bueno, lo siento a todos de vosotros que no hablan español pero por la petición de mi prima, Katerina, esta entrada de blog está escrita en español. Y sé que solo has pedido una oración en español, prima mia, pero aquí tienes todo para ti. Menos mal, no?

Como dice el título de esta entrada, estoy trasladado. Jamás recibiré correo en calle Azacayas, jamás tendré fiestas de vino y queso en mi habitación gigante...sino que mis amigos y yo nos divertiremos en PLAZA ROMANILLA! Lut y yo hemos <> (theres a spanglishism for ya) y nos hemos mudado a otro piso chulísimo. El dueño es un poco raro pero bastante simpático. Nos ha dejado un impresora y los altavoces de su ordenador que son muy buenos. Además nos va a traer una tele! Supongo que estos regalos son remuneración para el piso más sucio del mundo que también nos dejó. Lut y yo hemos estado limpiando como hipcondriacos estos últimos días. Pero creo que tendremos un piso listo para una fiestita pronto (que suerte tenéis todos vosotros aquí en Granada).

También hoy es el último dia de mi primer cuatrimestre en la universidad de Granada. Gracias a dios!! Estoy harto de las asignaturas que tengo. Me alegrará mucho el cambio de horario y temas que viene el 18. No tengo ganas de saber más de la antropología de religión (la asignatura cuyo examen final tiene lugar mañana). Que más.... bueno, no lo sé pero si ma habláis por skype quizá os puedo dar una gira del piso. Pues nada, ya está. Hasta la próxima entrada!

Mateo

Apologies, legal jargon, set ups, and my return to blogging!

Dios mio, ha pasado un mes y no he escrito nada! Whoops. Bueno, ahora voy escribiendo una nueva entrada para todos vosotros. Now, there are some lengthy paragraphs here, I know, but they are good. You should not be scared of them; just keep reading. It's so worth your while.

Ok so, where to begin... I guess I left off at my xmas vacation plans with a promise to tell you all about them. However, I think suffice to say it was way fun, way cold (about -3 celcius everywhere we went except Barcelona) and all the pictures on facebook can tell the rest of the story. I´m sure there will be tidbits I´ll recall in everyday conversation so maybe you´ll get lucky enough to hear about some cool european adventures once we next converse.

Well, apart from getting back to Granada (a super weird experience to ¨go home¨ after a vacation back to Granada) I have been busy with finals prep...which is pretty ironic because as I type I am counting down to a final in one hour and 52 minutes for which I have not quite put in as much time studying as the syllabus suggests, but what the heck, everyday is an adventure here in Spain.

Also I have been getting hella work from my job that I have been doing. At first they would send me little newspaper articles to revise and it took like an hour each, but now it seems as though I have graduated to 20+ page legal documents with complex terminology and the requirement of consistency in syntax and word choice throughout the article. It usually takes me like 3 or 4 intense days of nothing but staring at the computer screen and reading aloud to myself trying to remember how English is supposed to sound (my brain is very cluttered with Spanish grammar at this point) but it pays well enough. Oh, well, it pays well enough once April comes around that is. See, I started working for this organization at the end of their 3 month payment cycle so I got about 50 euros for all my work until now because only December work counted. So between the end of December and the payment disbursements, I have a few hundred euros that I have earned unavailable to me until 3 months from now. I'm not too sure if I like this system...

Oh, AND I got set up on a date with a 30 year old chef. Thank you very much, Lut and Anna. Now, let me explain how nightlife interaction in Spain goes for me. First off, it's always in a pub or bar (bars here serve food, pubs are exclusively drinking cuz thats just how it goes in Granada) and there is loud music and lots of noise from other patrons of the establishment. Now, if you are an English speaker and you have gone into a noisy situation with me, you already know I can barely hold conversations in the context of my native language just because of the fact that my hearing is terrible. So, here in Spain I'm usually in that same context but with Spanish, naturally. So being a guiri (foreigner) when I need to ask a Spaniard to repeat him or herself they assume I just dont speak the language because somehow, everyone here has incredible hearing and has no problem conversing in loud bars or clubs. So, when I actually do have a conversation with someone, after asking for repetition a few times, they change gears into "speak to him like he's 3 years old". So it's fun to deal with that as well as the shameless and obvious flirting that goes on here. I cant tell you how many times I have gotten the "Te voy a ensenar espanol *wink wink*" here. Then if I reject said flirting they will try to backtrack by saying something like "oh, no you dont understand, its a spanish thing. thats all." And while Im polite enough to not say anything back, in my head my response ready to go is "Yeah, I'm sure you squeezing my ass as you wink at me and tell me you're going to teach me spanish is just a cultural thing."

Alright, I need to go do some last minute cramming for my final in one hour and thirty four minutes. But I will end this entry on a happy note by letting everyone know that I eat so much shawarma so frequently that the workers in about 4 shawarma shops on calle Elvira know me and give me free stuff. Woo hoo! ....is it bad i dont even know their names?... oh well, keep the shawarma coming, dudes.