1. The bus is crammed full of people going home for their extensive Spanish luncheon (roughly 2pm, the Spanish way). Ollie and I have to stand in the gangway and use our sea-legs to stay upright; a girl sitting near to us cracks up laughing every time I make a face or a weird noise in trying not to fall over. I conclude that my face is hilarious and am happy to have contributed to her day.
2. I wonder if it's a mistake to have shared the link to this blog with Ollie and Andrew as they sit in their rooms and holler quotes from my own entries through the flat. Well, it got me writing again!
3. Teaching basic salsa steps to Vanessa, Ollie and Dave outside the faculty in an attempt to get them to come to the class tonight. So lame, so guay.
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4. A mention of the moustachio'd man in the small cafeteria has been a long time coming. Today, as I ask what kinds of muffins he has, he mishears and thinks I say "buffets"; then when I say I'll have a chocolate muffin, he helpfully says that I should say "el de chocolate," not "lo de chocolate," then when he pours milk into my coffee he has a bit of a Spanishy-accented sing-song - "Wan kahp off coffee pleeease."
5. During the weekend there is an unexpected heatwave and the air is balmy and it smells like summer. All the Spanish, young and old, congregate in one of the plazas on my way to the Metro, and I spy a fantastic old man lounging on a bench wearing a flat cap, tweed jacket and a pair of those black framed, inch-thick lens glasses, making him look pretty pie-eyed and content in the sun.
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We have sadly had to say goodbye to a handful of some of the people who made up the glue of our Erasmus family; Marcus (a.k.a. Jamón Arnie, Señor Jamón) was the first to leave, back to Berlin, and the last couple of weeks we had with him were truly fantastic, dancing salsa and drinking peppermint tea after nights out; Jaeyoon flew back to Korea early this month and we miss her smiley face and her catchphrase, a genuinely awed "...Woooow...". I miss her a lot, she was one of the loveliest people I've met here and she was a top-notch baking buddy. Seohyun has also gone back to Korea. Just a couple of days ago we had a farewell party for her and it was a bit of a bittersweet occasion. That said, there are still a lot of fun times to be had, and although it will be a while until we see each other again, I'm certain that, eventually, we will. ¡Madrid, Madrid!
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| Winky Marcus |
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| Jaeyoon, Captain of Retiro |
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| Seohyun (wa-wa-wee-wah!) |
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