Ostia!

Such drama is going down in our piso right now. So there are five of us all together: me, Evan, Naz, Mounir, and Dulce. Evan and I share a room (obviously) so there are four rooms in the apartment. Naz is an auxiliar (like me) from Nevada. Mounir is a PhD student from Morrocco who is studying 4G wireless technology. Whew! Heavy stuff. Dulce is a 50 year old music teacher....yeah that was not a typo.

So a few weeks ago Mounir and Dulce got into it big time. She is very quiet and passive aggressive. So he left his laundry in the washing machine for a couple days. Not the best thing to do when you have four other roommates but it isn't the end of the world. So instead of asking Mounir to take his laundry out, she took it out for him and put it in a dirty bucket where we keep the broom and dustpan. Talk about passive aggressive. He, of course, blew up at her and the argument just spiraled downwards from there. We could hear the yelling from our room, it was that bad. So pretty much ever since then we rarely see Dulce. She used to sit out in the living room in the evenings and watch TV and cook food. It seems like she never cooks anymore and she definitely doesn't watch TV.  I have even seen her twice on the street, said "Hola" with no response. I don't believe that she is trying to be mean, I just think she is a really depressed woman with no friends and probably not much family. Anyone would have to be that is living in an apartment with four people under 28.

So this whole situation came to a head again yesterday. It was Dulce's day to clean the house and she cleaned only the stove. I kind of saw this coming with her recent behavior but I wasn't sure what exactly was going to happen. So she only cleaned the stove because (I assume) her reasoning was that is the only thing she uses in the house. And she crossed her name off the cleaning schedule we have posted on the fridge. Definitely not a sufficient amount of cleaning when there are five people living in an apartment.

So essentially I am going to try and use all the social skills that my social worker parents have bestowed upon me and find some way to work this situation out. Probably, because I never see her, this will involve some sort of note and discussion. Lucky for this situation, not necessarily so lucky for us, Mounir is moving out on the 29th of this month. I think once he is gone she will feel comfortable using the rest of the apartment again. Who knows what kind of roommate we will get next though *crosses fingers*.

On a lighter note, I did well on the 10K on Sunday! I ran it in 1 hour, 4 minutes and 58 seconds. Probably about a 10 minute mile average. I definitely want to do another race here again. There is a really nice looking 8K that goes along the coastline in Formentera in May that looks tempting. That would be a great excuse to travel there with my running buddies!

I will sign off with this picture of Sa Jaia Correma. Every class at my school has this poster in the classroom. They were put up four weeks ago. There are three feet left, and when those three feet are gone it will be spring break and Easter. So each foot signifies the seven weeks before Easter break. It is funny how each foot/shoe is different. I wish I had gotten my camera out sooner to document all the feet. She reminds me of Stregga Nonna a little bit. Definitely a mischievous old with grandmother if I ever saw one.

I Over Did It

I went on a hike with the 3rd and 4th grade class on Wednesday to Valldemossa and we were gone all day. It was really fun! I had a great time with one of the English teachers I work with, Marga, the director, Tomeu, and the 4th grade teacher, Tomeu. It was a beautiful day and we were able to see Cabrera from up at the top, which I have never been able to see before!

So I was on my feet all day but decided I needed to go for a run anyways to stay on my schedule of 3 runs a week, every other day. Tomeu (teacher) brought some delicious coffee, which we enjoyed at lunch and was a very welcome pick-me-up. Because I am so sensitive to caffeine, I felt great during the run and pushed myself harder than I have before here and ran around 6 miles. Which is what I will be doing on Sunday in the 10K.

It is great to know that I have it in me to run that far but that was a bad day to test myself because now my left foot is hurting. I have foot problems so it is not that big of a deal but it hasn't hurt in a while. I think I should be fine by Sunday and have learned my lesson.

RIP Luke

I was never very close with Luke but he was a significant person in one of the most important years of my life: my first year of college. We lived together in the dorms and had some great times. He was a fisherman in Oregon and his ship along with 3 other crew members went down. There was a distress signal and the Coast Guard searched 640 miles of ocean and all they found was an oil slick, some debris and an inflated life raft. They decided that the conditions were too adverse and it had been too long for anyone to be possibly left alive. Like I said before, I wasn't very close with Luke but this has just been a difficult year for me with deaths. Jim Kennedy, Janet Guzman, Jon Brickner, now Luke Jensen. He was such a strong person, physically and with his personality. Very charismatic. I have great memories of him, Kevin, Jordan, Richelle and I going fishing and doing bonfires together. And all the great times smoking hookah out on the balcony, the time Luke too mushrooms and ended up being ridiculous and eating Lucky Charms in our bathroom. So many good memories...At least he died doing what he loved out at sea. I just hope he didn't suffer for too long. My heart goes out to his family and friends.

It was great having Jordan here in Spain with me for this. Last night we drank a couple bottles of wine and reminisced about those great times we had in the dorms. And talked about the present, future and everything in between. I am so lucky that I can surround myself with at least 2 of my people in times like these.

It is so hard to be away from home when I am feeling like this but at the same time the family that I have developed with the people I have met is going to be so hard to leave. All the great people I have met here; Scott, Emily, Mary, Lisa, Italis, the list goes on. I am really going to have a hard time leaving this island. That is a good thing.

I am getting really excited to meet the extension of my Italian family in Scotland. We are flying out on April 5th to Edinburgh. My mom's cousin Josephine lives across the bay from Edinburgh with her husband. They had 2 grown children, Derek and Shirley. Derek has 2 kids who are 4 and 9. I am really excited to meet them. Josephine was nice on the phone when I skyped her.

They are still doing construction on our building which is becoming more and more depressing as the weather is getting warmer. They powerwashed all the balconies yesterday, which I am hoping means that they are getting closer to being done. After the whole incident of paint dust being squirted through all the cracks in the (really old and crappy) windows in the apartment, I am very much over it. AND waking up to them working at 8 am on Saturdays!!?? WTF!! This is Spain, people are not supposed to work that much here!!!

This experience has given me so much to appreciate. Any apartment I live in after this is going to feel like heaven, just because I will only be living with Evan and/or Jordan. And we can have all of our own stuff in it! Without any dirty and/or strange roommates! Hurray!

My friends Mary, Amanda and I are running in a 10K this coming Sunday! I have run that far before but never in a race so I am really excited! We are thinking of going to a sushi buffet afterwords to celebrate. Unfortunately, the race is the day after St. Patty's Day so we are not going to be able to take part in many of the celebrations such as Irish car bombs. (I need to remember to not talk about Irish car bombs when we are in Dublin). I might spend the night at Mary's just so I don't have to worry about Evan stumbling in drunk and waking me up lol.

I need to start writing more often!