The Day with the First Jar of Mustard.

That’s right.  I found it! A jar of Dijon mustard.  It was over 2 Euros (around $3), but it was quite simply the best investment I have made thus far in Spain.  I am eating a turkey sandwich with mustard, onions and wheat bread as I type this.  Let me go into more detail about this delicious sandwich- beyond the mustard.  The turkey tastes like turkey, not like ham or some mystery meat- turkey!  Then, the bread: after I found the mustard at the grocery store, I went to find the panadería for the bread that was made fresh today.  When I finally found it, I reached for the wheat baguette and was shocked- it was warm!  The baker had just put it out on the shelf and it was still warm!  It was at that point I knew I was going to have an amazing dinner.  And it is:  spicy mustard, turkey-tasting turkey, crunchy onions and a crispy baguette.  It tastes even better than a US turkey sandwich because you can’t beat European bread (did I mention it was still warm when I chose it in the grocery store?).  

Before all this grocery store 'excitement', I went to the bank and paid 9 Euro for the race this Sunday.  They gave me a receipt of payment, which I faxed, along with my entry form, to the race in order to sign myself up. I hope they got it. We’ll see on Sunday. (I also hope a get a t-shirt, but there was no mention of this on the website.)  My roommate, Clarisse is going to cheer me on!  (My other roommate goes away every weekend to Málaga, so my cheering section will be a party of one.)

Next, I spent 3 hours at school surfing the Internet and attending the English department meeting.  The meeting lasted approximately 5 minutes.  My schedule changed a little bit because there is some drama with certain classes not having a conversation time (where students and go and chat with the native English speakers).  The resolution to the drama is that I will work an extra hour on Tuesdays and have one less hour of scheduled preparation time for my classes during the week.  I feel like it’s not a great thing to have more work and less ‘official’ time to plan or make photocopies, etc.  If I don’t have enough time for that kind of thing, I’ll have to give my opinion about the changes.

In TIE news- I got an e-mail from the Spanish government giving me a time for my second appointment:  November 2.  Remember that at that appointment I hand in my photos, give my fingerprints and hand in more forms.  They process everything and alert me via e-mail when my card is ready.  Note to Spanish Government:  My student visa expires on December 16.  Will you have it ready by then? (I’m acting so American right now, aren’t I?) Well, if the deportation process takes as long as the temporary resident application process, I’ll be fine.

This weekend is a long weekend.  There is no class on Monday or Tuesday.  I think Spain is celebrating the greatest investment it ever made- financing Columbus’ journey to the New World.  Two days are needed to reflect on the genius of this investment that took place just 518 years ago.  That means that I have a four-day weekend to spend here in Alcalá without any (free) Internet.  I’m not even sure that the pay-Internet place is open.  Indeed the weekends are some sort of torture.  Maybe I’ll go into the city and hang out with Shaelyn or Megan.  Or maybe I’ll call Loly…Or maybe I’ll just write another blog entry.

I try to teach myself Spanish by watching my Friends DVDs with Spanish subtitles.  I think it’s going to work, don’t you?

Missy/Melissa