SAVVI: MY ALOOF BLOGGING PARTNER, VEN AQUI
Only two months till Savvi joins me on this grand extended adventure. I just got incredibly excited thinking about our plans for July. I'm meeting Savvi in London on July 10th and we are going to stay in England for a bit and then go to Norway and maybe after to Morocco and be back in time for my 3 month visa expiration, at which time I will resume life here illegally. But for now, Spain it is, and that's just fine by me. I've been here for 5 days and so far every day has been about the same. I go with Mariona (la mama) to drop off Martina (la niña) in the morning and then we go to the gym. Today we started reading a book, La Princesa de Hielo, in the car on the way to the gym. Well actually I read it aloud and then Mariona tells me what a lot of words mean and how to say them.
UNO MAS! is the phrase that wakes me up in my morning classes at the gym. Today we went to a class, I don't know what it's called, but we danced around while exercising. The ladies there might understand more about what is coming out of the instructor's mouth, but I beat them by a long shot with my comprehension of the American dance music they consistently play. There are some really sweet dudes at the gym who sport a braided variety of the mullet. Next we come home and make lunch (which is the equivalent size to our dinner), which is always really really good (Mariona says "how tasty eh?). After lunch we go pick up Martina from school.
Yesterday she reallly hated me, and before that she was just off and on. She really enjoys telling me to shut up and tells her mom that I hit her. She got in big trouble for this. I don't blame her for being a little hostile, I would be too if I were three and had a strange person unsuccessfully babbling Spanish living in my house. She did tell me the other day "te quiero un poco y mi madre y padre un montón", which means I love (but not a very strong way of saying it) you a little and my mom and dad a lot, which was really sweet of her. I'm pretty spoiled here at my so called "job", and Martina really warmed up to me this morning, so I'm hopeful.
Tomorrow las tres chicas (the three girls) are going to the mountains outside of Madrid and getting churros con chocolate. Salva (el papá) has his last basketball game in San Sebastian, so we are going to go do something fun. I'm excited for tomorrow. I still don't feel like I am in Spain. The city I am in is really residential and doesn't feel very different from the US, but I think tomorrow's trip outside of Majadahonda and my own outing to Madrid on Sunday will remind me. As for now I am trying to win Martina over and sound half coherent when I speak. Right now speaking Spanish feels sort of like when I'm trying to find a street but I keep running into culdesacs at every other turn. I run into a lot of dead ends with words I don't know or have forgotten, but I'm already feeling a lot more comfortable with my Spanish.

VALE, HASTA LUEGO!