This morning was absolutely gorgeous: cool and grey. The trees and I thoroughly were made happy by the hint of moisture in the air as well.

Since most of the non-pasta dishes I know how to cook require ingredients that either they don´t have here or I don´t know how to ask for, I´ve been cooking lots & lots of pasta. Is getting a little old, to tell the truth. Yesterday I was fantasizing about all the restaurants I want to eat at when I get back to the U.S. Am especially missing good Mexican food. Would kill for a good chicken mole about now. With SOUR CREAM! Can´t find sour cream here. Or cottage cheese. Or cheddar cheese...though they have something they call cheddar and which tastes like poo. Not literally, of course. The other problem is time to cook. Pasta is quick and easy; other dishes take a little more time. But oh, my, could really go for a box of Kraft mac & cheese. Drool, drool...

Am hungry, in case you hadn´t noticed. And tired too. I almost fell asleep on the metro on my way back from my a.m. class. Oh yes, and let´s not forget the fact that I was 30 minutes late to my class this morning because a) the metro lines were all screwed up and b) in order to circumnavigate the metro mess I tried walking to my class location from a different metro stop than usual and got lost. But my student, who happens to be one of my favorites, was totally cool about the whole thing and said that the Madrid metro system goes screwy from time to time and she knew it wasn´t my fault.

Yesterday I figured out that I teach thirteen lessons a week. Most days I only have 3 lessons, but Tuesdays (today) are my long days, where I´m up at 6am and home after my last class around 10pm. I could use a nap or two. Sometimes a three day weekend still isn´t enough. But I love the teaching; I only wish I could teleport from class to class instead of squeezing onto overpacked trains. On the bright side: at least it´s not the Paris metro I´m riding. If memory serves, that one is stinky.