Sunday, March 13, 2005,
As I write it is 6 o'clock in the morning. I'm planning on sleeping until 4pm tomorrow and then going to bed again at 10pm. That means I'll be awake for a total of 6 hours total. Interesting. Anyway last nite we went to a cool tiny funky bar called 13, which has the best mojitos in the city; they use a mortar and pestal to grind the mint and everything, very cool. Then we went to a VERY Catalan (not touristy like the rest of the clubs downtown) flamenco bar, and while we were sitting there a woman got up and danced; not totally out of control and probably not totally sober; she was a real, Spanish dancer who was just doing it for fun ... it reminded me of the Hawaiian women who dance to hulas they know at potlucks or whatever. It was very special. Next we cruised the streets, got falafel and baklava, and stood around deciding what to do next. We didn't really feel like paying cover charges for the clubs so we went home instead and chatted until 5 in the morning.
Excitingness in the life of Mel:
- I got a JOB; under terribly unfortunate circumstances, but still, I got a job and that's good. Our friend Britney's mother has just been diagnosed with a possibly cancerous tumor, so she's going back to the States on MONDAY. She's really nice and I feel really bad for her; she's dating a really nice Spanish boy and I had an "interview" today for her job, which was really more like an info session -- here are your classes, here are your books, here is the bus stop, etc. The job is teaching English in-company. a lot of companies here hire English teachers (through english schools) to teach their employees English. This company makes bubble gum (I know; weird, right? And apparently when you go into the company you have to put your hair in a bun and wear a bonnet ... kind of like the cafeteria ladies have to wear hairnets, so that no hair gets in the gum!) Anyway -- Wrigley just bought out the company and the first thing they're doing (as a typical American co.) is firing a bunch of employees, so these next few weeks should be interesting. The hours are terrible - for example, on Tuesdays I teach from 8-9:30am and then from 5-7:30pm; and the commute is really long and bad, but who cares!? It's hours, it's money, I'm happy.
- I got my packet of info on the Rotary Scholarship. I'm super excited! They pay for my tuition, room, board, books, and roundtrip airfare from the States! It's going to be cool, I'm really happy about it. I need to take a Berlitz language exam and have a physical, among other requirements, plus apply to and get accepted to La Universidad Torcuato di Tella, but besides that, I'm all set to study International Development in Buenos Aires for the schoolyear of 06-07, starting in March. Exciting!
Language spot:
- Many of you will already know this, but clubs here (as in nightclubs) are discotecas. I swear - and I'm not sure if it's because English textbooks taught discotheque in the 70's and Spanish just adopted it and never caught up to the current word for club, or just because someone at one point decided that Saturday Night Fever should forever be immortalized in Spain. Whatever the case, I find it amusing.
- apparently the british say "I've got flu" instead of "I have the flu." You probably just read that and thought, oh, that's normal, they say "I've got the flu." But note: that's NOT what it says. It says "I've got flu." There's no article. (As , they don't say I've got THE flu" they just say "I've got flu.") Bizarre, right? Know what else has no article? Toothache. They say "I've got toothache" instead of "I have a toothache." Explain that one ... Nicole and I think it sounds like cavemen (me have toothache), but whatever, that's British English for ya. p.s. Marina do you say this!?
