Today feels like spring: the sun is warm, the sky cloudless. Birds chirp. The air is cool but the breeze has just a hint of warmth to it.

Tonight Shannon, Meaghan (the new roommate) and I need to decide if we are going to stay in this apartment after February, and if not, whether we all want to try to live together in the next place. I have considered striking out on my own to find a room in a Spanish-speaking household, but I've heard so many horror stories from people with bad roommates here that I might rather rent a 4-bedroom flat with Shannon and Meaghan and find a Spanish-speaking person to take the fourth room, even if it means I'm not speaking as much Spanish in the house.

This weekend was a good mix of play and work. I had a lot of organizing/planning to do for my classes, and I got a good chunk of the work done, so I'm going into the week feeling relaxed rather than harried. I will actually have time to write during the week because I'm on top of lesson planning for once.

Yesterday the girls and I went clothes shopping at Principe Pío (there is a big indoor mall there). I escaped with a lovely silk blouse, a pink jacket for spring, and a grey courduroy blazer.

Then last night we went out for drinks with some friends. We went to what is quickly becoming a favorite among many of us: Bar Colorado just off the Plaza de España. It is a Mexican bar, with actual Mexican bartenders (though they are all much whiter than the Mexicans I meet in Oregon) who remember us and usually give us a free shot of tequila at the end of the night.

Last night one of them had filled a mini squirt gun in the shape of a killer whale with tequila and he periodically passed down the bar squirting jets of tequila into people's mouths.

The time before that they let me try on the Místico mask (Místico = Mexican wrestler) and we took some pictures and then I realized I couldn't really breathe because the mask has no nose or mouth holes so I took it off and made Martín wear it for a while.

Every time we go there there's something new and fun and different, not to mention the fact that they play fabulous music. I only wish the place were bigger and had a dance floor.

Also I have a non-sexual crush on one of the bartenders, Roderigo. Last night I told one of his co-bartenders, who had nothing better to do at that moment than listen to me chatter, that Roderigo was my boyfriend only he didn't know it. Why don't you tell him? the guy said. Oh, no. I can't do that, I said. What if he says no? Well that's why you tell him, not ask him, was the reply. Hm. Good point.