Sunday, December 09, 2007
A good trajectory ...
They say bad things happen in threes, and last week I was dreading they third bad thing that was surely to occur. First of all, the Friday before last my phone went missing, then I had a huge inflammation of my wisdom tooth which caused an indescribable amount of pain... and then.... well, I was dreading #3.
But incredibly, it didn't happen. Instead, I had an amazing time with Helsinki. I saw my aunt, and for the first time in a long while, I really felt like family with her again! I surprised Emma (and was worried, for a moment, that I'd give her a heart attack!). The next day, I felt incredibly loved at Nolla, and Sunday was a day for bitter-sweet goodbyes... but nothing BAD happened at all!
And this weekend? The good vibe simply continues! All week, I've been smiling, in my own little world... And I seem to have incurred the same reputation here as I had in Australia: CONFUSED. Ooops. 5 minutes into Real Madrid vs Athletic Bilbao game last night: "Ah, han cambiado lados" (They switched sides!). Hehe. Stijn and Edmer couldn't stop laughing.
After that, I got happy birthday sung to me (that hasn't happened in years, because my birthday is so close to Christmas that nobody is ever around to celebrate it - perhaps this year I'll make my mom and dad sing in Tanzania... and perhaps I'll have to invite the Sorsas and the Nykters over for my birthday, so I'll get a rendition in Finnish!)... that was at a December birthdays party though ... so HAPPY BIRTHDAY to FERNANDO AND LUCY (with me in two photos below), and to EDMER (above, the chilled out looking Peruvian at the football match). Love you all!
... and after that, we went out to Salsa... and my handbag was stolen within a few minutes, literally from right in front of my friends!
But then I hear this "Valisa" announced over the P.A. system...??! And an awesome undercover policewoman had caught the thief and recovered the bag (the thief got away again though)... and NOTHING was missing! So Adri, Jose and I took a lot of photos at the police station, even though I'm not entirely sure that's allowed. So, match, birthday and police station, all within the space of about 4.5 hours!
A couple only in Spain-isms this past couple of weeks:
1. I paid an extra 20 Euros to have my box of books arrive by Friday, and instead, the normal parcel arrived first. The books better arrive on Monday, or I'm a bit screwed for my presentation!
2. I try to pay for a ticket in Tanzania, and the flight I booked just didn't exist. Meaning, of course, that prices meanwhile went up by 100!
3. I went to the hospital to see a doctor about my tooth, and the receptionist gave me a long scolding about my missing health insurance card, but still waves me through.
4. The doctor at the aforementioned hospital first showed me photos for half an hour before giving me a prescription, after I told him I felt nauseous from pain and that I had a presentation to prepare for the next day.
5. My copy of the economist went to 11, 2C instead of 9, 2C, and the neighbour brought it over (this is a great feature of Spain!)... and happened to be the ex-director of the Human Rights Institute at Deusto! What coincidence!
There were more... but I've just woken up, (to a very sweet text message, which I only thought I dreamed I replied to - but I actually did in reality, too)... so perhaps I should go back to sleep in order to remember the Spainisms - after all, it's only 11 something, on a Sunday... mmmm :) Or perhaps I should drink that coffee and see what happens next...
fon @ 4:17 PM link to post * *