Nov 8/9 -- Murcia

Almost 1/2 way over. Today we have to wash a few things and make a trip to the mercado, also maybe a cyber cafe so I can e-mail T. I talked to him a little bit yesterday while he was still at work and so did A but when we called he thought it was K calling and didn't know it was us until she put me on the phone.

Things I've noticed you can't get here:

1. instant anything that looks appetizing.... their canned foods and packaged stuff looks terrible. No instant rice or noodles, no Spaghetti-Os or mac & cheese. What's a college kid to live on? I noticed that they do have small packages of flour & corn tortillas here but they're sort of a novelty. It's definitely a healthier way of eating -- just cooking with whole foods.
2. Velveeta. Wish I could. Daniela (one of the Italians) love mac and cheese and I could make her some that would knock her socks off if I could find it. I'm going to have T pull together some things for a care package including blueberry pancake mix, Kraft macaroni & cheese and some other things.
3. cottage cheese
4. cheese-its
5. pop tarts
6. Hershey's anything. This is an M&M/Mars country. Also Toblerone, Nestle and Cadbury. All good -- but A wants Hershey's.
7. fresh milk or eggs -- everything's in a box and the eggs are sold in 6 packs and don't need to be refrigerated. What do you have to do to an egg to not have to refrigerate it?

Another thing I'm going to do today is go in to full mom mode and take some pictures of the things that are broken around here. I intend to write ISEP a letter when A gets home. There's no heat or air (the landlady has taped over the controls and claims it's broken), they can't get to the laundry line because the window's locked and she won't get a key made, the dishwasher's broken and taped up with about a roll of package tape. There's 2 bulbs in A's room, about 10W each. She has a desk lamp that only works if you hold the cord and your tongue just right. It wouldn't bug me so much but each of the girls pay 210 euro. Times 5 and that's almost $1200 per month plus the electric. I think they're getting ripped off.

Nov 9

Yesterday was sort of another non-event day. A and I went shopping at Zara for Juan Antonio's birthday. I accidentally dropped my jacket and it took forever to find it. When Spanish women shop they mob the displays and throw everything around. Nothing stays folded or where it belongs and there's store employees running all over just doing nothing but picking up and refolding. I told A it looks like Penny's during the After Thanksgiving sale at home. I figured my jacket was buried at the bottom of a pile or hung on a hanger somewhere but one of the employees had picked it up.

After lunch (tuna & egg empenada and a mushroom and artichoke mini pizza) we walked down the Traperia and over to Sephora, then hung around the cathedral Plaza a little while. Still trying to figure out when I need to be there so I can go inside the cathedral. I did make it to the internet cafe and sent T a really long e-mail. I miss him and think about him and how he'd like it here. While Juan and A were out I sat down to read "Syrup" by Maxx Barry and read the whole book... oops. I told her I'd leave my Chronicles of Narnia but now I'm out of reading material so I might have to take it back.