Sunday

First let me say thanks to all those who have left comments or email me about my blog. THANKS! It means a lot to know you´re reading and wishing me well.

Met my Facebook friend J. last night & he took us around to some tapas bars near our hostel. J. is very nice, a perfect gentleman, will slow down his speech for me if I request it, and is interested in North American culture and in practicing speaking English. As they say here, "es buena gente": "he´s good people." We didn´t stay out too late though because I hadn´t taken siesta & was pretty tired. Still battling jet lag. However, I did get the chance to corner him about the bidet thing, and here´s the story: although it´s true that Spain´s sewer system did not used to be able to handle toilet paper, it can now, so people DO flush their used TP. The bidet was invented in France and adopted in Spain for the purposes I guessed about, but they´re no longer widely used here in Spain. They still put them in new houses, but more as tradition and to demonstrate wealth than for practical use.

Today met one of my soon-to-be roommates, Sara. She let me drop off my big suitcase and my backpack at the flat so that I could travel lighter into Galicia. She seems nice, and the flat is fine: small but fairly clean, and I´ll have my own little bedroom with desk and armoire. There will be four of us in the flat, three women and one man: Sara, Laura, Pedro and me. Only Sara was home at the time of my visit though, so I have yet to meet the others.

After dropping off my bags & grabbing something to eat, we went to the Prado museum, which has free admission all day on Sundays. (Hooray!) I had been before, but the museum was actually smaller than I remembered (or maybe I just saw a lot less?). I saw all my favorite Velazquez paintings again, so that was cool.

Oops! Just realized I am out of time. More later!