September 12 2022

Today I had four classes. My US advisor approved my schedule for this semester today, so I'll post that in the next few days when it's not 11:45PM and I'm super tired. But now I only have four classes Mondays and Tuesdays instead of five, so having more of a break was really nice. After school, Jisenia and I went to go get our passport pictures taken. We need them to apply to extend our visas since we're here for the whole year. (To anyone who talked to me in the last few months about applying for the visa just to get here to begin with... I hope this one is way easier. Fingers crossed.) After we got our pictures, we went to eat.

At dinner we ordered tap water and they brought us beer.

Here's the pizza I had--spinach, goat cheese, carmelized onion, truffle cream. It was really good. I ate the whole thing. (I feel like Elizabeth in Madrid is 90% food.)

On the way home Susana texted me that she was at a bar with her Asturian friend who speaks Gallego (Julio) and told me to stop by and hang out, so I did. I just got home a little bit ago and now I'm going to bed.

But first, fun story: when I asked Susana about her day at dinner, she told me she had to go to the doctor. When I asked her why, she said it was "rutina," but I heard that it was something "with Tina" (Tina's the dog). So I was like "Oh no :( What's wrong with Tina :(" And she was like "Nothing?" It was just her (Susana's) routine ("rutina") checkup.

Also, big news everyone. I got my first Hola! magazine today. I've been meaning to since I got here, but I've been so busy in the mornings and by the time I finally remember on my way home for the night, all the newsstands are closed. But today I had extra time in the morning, so I stopped at the newsstand by my metro stop. Very very excited to dig in. For those unfamiliar, Hola! is a gossip magazine, like People or USA Today but way better. It's bigger and they have really nice, clear pictures. Belen always had them out for me and Rose to look at when we lived with her in Oviedo. I thought they were sooo fun. And reading the articles is a good way to practice Spanish (truly).