No Spain, no gain

I really should blog, it's been 6 days since I last blogged. However, not a lot has happened really. I failed to go to my exam Monday, because I couldn't find it. Other than that, I have just been sleeping, and going out for tapas, which has all been very uninteresting really. I prefer Bella y Bestia to the Riviera for tapas now, the barmen are always smiley and nice, and now they recognise us, although the usual guy forgot to ask for our tapas the other day, but it was all solved with lots of smiling, which was nice. Helen is slightly concerned that Mohammed does not work in the Riviera any more, however, it's been so long since we've been there (still less than a week though probably) that we're not sure. They have taken on a lot of new staff there. Ah well. So yes. Bella y Bestia is now top.

Actually, something mildly interesting happened today. David revealed he will not be coming to Aber, using the lame excuse that he doesn't think the course is quite right for him. Mary is staying in Aber, even though she isn't sure about the course, so tsk.

I am eating LOTS of hot chocolate at the moment. I have also had a bit of paracetamol because my nose is blocked and I've been coughing a bit. I say "a bit" because I drank half of it (it was disolvable, is that even a word? Do I want to be saying soluble?) and then just poured the rest away cos it's just disgusting.

Going out for tapas tonight with Helen and her boyfriend, and then numerous people, including Carly and her friend from Durham/Madrid are going to Camborio, so I assume we shall be joining them there.

God I have been doing nothing as of late.

Just a quick blog to keep ya'll up to date. The only thing even mildly interesting is Camborio, the club in the caves.

I met Helen and Ben (her boyfriend) at 9.30, and we went to Escuelas for the pizza tapas, and then to Bella y Bestia, although we didn't have tapas there. After talking to Matt (from Sheffield Uni, studying law, is very nice) randomly about lots of stuff, Teresa (Helen's Swiss flatmate) joined us, and we headed to the Dolce Vita for a 1E sangria (me and Helen) or beer (Ben and Teresa) and a shot of something. I don't know what it was, Ben ordered it. It had Jaeggermeister, pineapple juice and something else in it I believe. It wasn't that bad actually.

Next up was walking to Camborio I believe, where we were ridiculously early, we arrived about half 2, and it didn't fill up until 4ish. In the mean time, I drank vodka and coke, and we talked a lot to the barmaid who is from London, and who can't imagine a town smaller than Granada. We also got ourselves put on the "Guest List" which means we don't have to pay 7E to get in every time, and we don't have to queue. The only requirement as far as I can tell is being female, you might have to be studying here, though I have no idea.

People started arriving then, including Carly and Clint (her Durham friend) and we danced and drank the night away. Some guy with really slimy ew hands asked me to dance and I told him I had a boyfriend, and later, this older guy talked to me until I told him I had a boyfriend, and he came back at least once to apologise. Then, just as me and Teresa were realising that we were pretty much the only girls left (Helen and Ben left around 5 or 6) ANOTHER guy just put his arms around my waist and I just edged away. A few minutes later, some guy said to Teresa "oh you're so shy, you should just put your hand on my ass", which was funny, but I think really offended her.

As we left Camborio, some guys asked us to try and open their bike lock, which we couldn't do. They spoke very good English, and we waited with them until the crane came (I taught them a new English word - "crane") came and took away their bike. Apparently they had been waiting for an hour and half, and they must have lived about 20, 30 mins away maximum, so why they didn't just walk home I have no idea.

Me and Teresa then walked down the hill, stopping on the way to be told I had perfect legs, well weird, and then I walked home, sans iPod and UK phone, since I had left them in Helen's. I got home when it had just got light, about 8am, and had some chocolate milkshake and biscuits before going to bed, and getting up at 5pm. I just went out to the internet cafe last night, then came home.

This morning my alarm went off at 10, so as to get to the post office before 2.30, since I had to find it, and it's outside Granada somewhere, and when I got up at just before 11, since Ivan had texted me asking if I wanted to meet at 12 (I texted him yesterday asking where the exam was and could I borrow his notes). At 25 past 12 I was outside the Aulario (I believe my exam might have been in the Faculty, and the idiot in the Secretary's office was lying, bastard), where I noticed a text on my phone from Ivan saying he was going to the Faculty, since I hadn't actually turned up (mwahaha). So I called him, and met him outside the Faculty, and we laughed and talked and the like, and after trekking to the library, and to check some of his marks (only organised thing about Spain: they are about 20 millions times quicker with exam results than Aber) we went for tapas. It was a bizarre tapas. It was like 2 sandwiches squashed together? I think it was bread, lettuce and mayonnaise, bread, ham and cheese, bread. Most bizarre. I had an OJ as usual and Ivan paid (gah). He said I am talking a lot better in Spanish now (used the same word as Marie-Lu, Pilar's friend) and he said he was going to visit me in Aber next year, though we shall see.

After saying goodbye, I ambled over to the Corte Ingles to buy massive envelopes to post Valentine's Day cards since my handmade ones won't fit in regular size ones, and barely fit in these special ones. While I was there, I bought a notepad (with squares, like Primary School Maths books, it's well weird, I quite like it though, and the only other option is plain paper, oh how I miss WHSmith's lined paper) and highlighters.

Then I just strolled to the Gran Via and because I was feeling lazy, caught the bus home. When I came in, I revised a bit for Matrimonial Crises (in no way am I going to pass this exam, it's terrible, and since seeing Ivan I've discovered all the exam marks become public, which is bad, since everybody is going to see how much I suck at the subject, which is a lot, because I didn't even hand in 2 of the essays, and 1 of the ones I did hand in was just terrible).

After that I just sat and lay around, and dozed off for a bit before getting up and having the remainder of my hot chocolate and biscuits just after Pilar left to go to her mother's (that looks like the apostrophe is in the wrong place).

And that's about it really. Oooh, I forgot to mention I had to give Ivan's scarf back. :(

Apologies for not blogging, it's just nothing interesting has actually happened to me so far this month. So, back to Wednesday, and tapas with Helen and Sarah etc. We went to the Riviera at 9pm, before that I called Grandma, and got lots of complaints about how my dad's not taking the cough mixture she recommended and that's why his cough isn't getting better. Then we (me, Helen, Sarah, Victoria (Ukrainian), the Spanish flatmate and some other people ate lots of tapas in the Riviera) before we lost everybody pretty much and went to the Dolce Vita. The Dolce Vita is a dive, and not a good dive like The Bay in Aber. It's just terrible, and if you are a girl and you dance on the bar, you get free drinks. So yeah. We had sangria since it was only 1E and after a bit we noticed that Paco (who Helen met at Camborio and keeps calling and texting her even though she never answers or replies) and I spent quite a lot of time shielding her from him, although he blatantly knew she was there. Haha. Actually, just before that, we went to Tantra Bar, which is really nice, but it was completely empty, hence why we went to the Dolce Vita.

After the Dolce Vita ... hmmm. We might have headed home, since I don't actually remember going anywhere else. So, right, I went home, amid much tears and saying goodbye to Sarah (though only tears from Sarah, I was impressed with myself, since I usually take any opportunity to burst into tears for the smallest reason) and after using the bathroom in Helen's flat, I walked home.

So, 1st of February aka Thursday. Errrrr, This might be a night when I didn't go out. Gah I should blog more regularly. Actually, I do believe this night I went out with Larisa. Yes I did. Larisa, the German couple, their friend from Germany (who spoke no Spanish, so a night of English was afoot), a Polish girl and me. We met at Plaza Einstein at 8.30 (well, I got there about 20 to 9, but whatever) and we went to this tapas bar, was despite them raving about it, was not great tapas really, and I was freezing because people kept leaving the door open. Gah. After that we went to another ar just around the corner, where I didn't try the tapas because someone mentioned "paprika" and it just looked horrible. Me, Larisa and the Polish girl (henceforth to be known as Renata, since that's her name) had a hot chocolate (continental style, of course). After much deliberation between the Russian Chocolate (scoop of vanilla ice cream sprinkled with cocoa powder) and the Classic Chocolate (just normal), I settled on the Classic since it was a bit cold for ice cream really. Then I walked home, giving my number to Renata along the way.

Friday I went to a Mojito Thing at Helen's, where many mojitos were drunk (I believe it contains rum, sugar and lemon fanta, or something of that ilk, it was nice. Oh, and mint, of course. And ice.). Helen's flatmates were there, as was a Swiss friend of the Swiss girl, who was a bit weird, but nice all the same. We also had a curry, and it was nice also, I ate it all. We also had Vienetta substitute for dessert. I accidentally poured salt into my mojito, thinking it was sugar. Very funny. Then we were joined by another Swiss girl and an Italian girl and more mojitos were drunk. Then we went to ... a bar ... and after that Helen headed off. I have no idea of where we went actually. Hmmm. A HA. It was a complete dive (in a reggae sense, aka they played reggae music and there were lots of dread locked and high people there), down a back street off Calle Elvira. Then Helen went home, and we lost the extra Swiss and Italian girls, and went to El Son, where we didn't drink anything, and to Planta Baja, where we also didn't drink anything. At this point we were quite tired, so we just left it at that and I got home about half 2.

Yesterday (nearly there), I met Helen at 9.30 for tapas, we went to Escuelas (which do greeeeeeeat pizzas) and then to the little D'Cuadros, where we had croquettes, as always in D'Cuadros. At about half 11, 12ish, we headed to Toni's partay, although Helen thought it was where she actually lived, so there was much walking around the Albaicin (arab quarter, very rough) before asking the tout for the Dolce Vita (I don't even think tout is the right word) and he said it wasn't anywhere near where we were. So we eventually found it (just off Plaza de la Trinidad) and had something which I was sure was wallpaper paste, until it was confirmed that the odd powdery whiteness was ice cream. It also contained rum, beer, wine and *other stuff*. Me and Helen drank some of that, and then talked to this half-Swedish girl called Natalie, who is studying in Essex, but was brought up in Luxembourg, so speaks French, German and Luxembourgish (a language I didn't even realise existed). Then Petr turned up, with this girl who he was blatantly trying to pull (gah). She was Greek, and thought Wales was a made up country. She also sounded exactly like Sid from Ice Age. We left Toni's flat (actually her friend's flat) at 2ish, just as the police turned up to tell us off, since the neighbours hadn't even bothered to complain to us before calling the police. We headed off to the Peaton, with me and Petr drinking rum with honey and ice on the way (it was quite nice) and me trying to decide if him and the Greek girl were actually a couple. God, she was bloody annoying, and I couldn't understand her. Neither could Helen. We wandered around bars for a bit, and then practically walked home (me, Helen, Petr and the Greek girl) before me and Helen just gave up and went home. I walked home, since it wasn't that cold, and it was a pleasant walk actually, although I didn't have my earphones in.

Phew, that brings us to today, which was far as I'm aware involves doing anything that isn't revision for my exam tomorrow (I figure who cares if I fail, it is worth 0.45% of my degree). I just don't really understand it, since almost everything is just in statutes, and there is no explanation for anything in the textbook, most of it is just the laws copied out. Hmmm. I have no idea where the exam is, the teacher emailed me back saying it's in the Aulario he thinks, and that we can take the "dossier" of laws and the Civil Code. I think it starts at 10ish, but I'm going to be there for 9ish, just in case overnight Spain becomes organised. And that is me out. Wow, that's taken me 25 minutes  to write. I should blog more frequently, even if it is very boring.

Monday not a lot happened, I got up at about half 3, and just sat around for a few hours, before going on the Internet.

Yesterday I got up at 2ish, though I'd been on and off awake since 10ish, and there was some more sitting about for hours until I called Helen and asked her if she fancied tapas with Sarah. So I went to the Internet cafe to do my last bit of Crisis Matrimoniales work (only 1 out of the 3 essay style things though, I don't want to seem too *keen*) and met Helen at the bottom of her road about about 9.30. We had tapas in Bella y Bestia, with the New Fit Barman there and then went to the Riviera, where although Helen's Mohammed wasn't there, there is a New Fit Barman also. He totally messed up our order though. Then we were joined by Sarah, her Ukrainian flatmate Victoria, and her Spanish flatmate, whose name I've never actually found out. We had tapas, chatted for a bit about good looking barmen, and then Me and Helen headed home while the others went somewhere else. On the way I said Helen has Mohammed, thus every other barman is for me, especially New Fit Ones. Lol. I then walked home, on the way receiving a call from Richard, he's very excited about this Pilar person.

I forgot to mention that I got a text from Miguel (or Miggerz as David likes to call him) asking if I fancied doing something tonight. I was low on credit and just generally couldn't be bothered to reply, so didn't. David then asked if we were an item now (me and Miggerz, not me and David) to which I said "no" and then we talked about how Gavin doesn't actually want to meet me at all in the summer.

That was about it really. Not the most exciting few days of my life, admittedly. Tonight me and Helen are meeting Sarah and I assume other people outside the Riviera at 8.30pm, so I'd better call Grandma before then, since I was supposed to call her last night. Eek.

And that's me out.

So I met Helen at the train station shortly after blogging and we had a Cola Cao before getting onto the train. The jouney passed pretty uneventfully as far as I can remember, when we arrived in Madrid, we caught the Metro (yay) and when we arrived at the hostel, we couldn't get into the room because Katie (Helen's friend from Bristol who flew over for the weekend) had gone out and had taken the room key with her. Anyway, we dumped our stuff, then we went out to an eatery not very far away, where Helen and Katie had burgers, and I had spag bol, but I was still hungry afterwards, so I had some of Helen's chips as well. Me and Helen were really knackered then, so we just headed home at 2ish, and went to sleep, with alarms set for 9am. At 11ish Saturday morning we got up, Katie showered first, then Helen and then me. However, by the time the water got to me it was luke warm, so I didn't bother washing my hair. We walked around Madrid, heading towards the Museo Reina Sofia (Queen Sophie Museum), stopping along the way at this "amazing" place where apparently they do amazing churros. I would not say they were amazing, sub par, in fact I think is a better description. The churros were not covered in sugar, and the hot chocolate could have done with some sugar. So tsk. Still, it was only 3 euros each. And I ate most of Helen and Katie's chocolate, at which I think they were impressed. We passed Plaza Mayor at around this point I think, not much to say about that really. Next was the museum itself, where there is the Guernica by Picasso. On the way we were most impressed by the Post Office, which is absolutely huge, and very impressive looking from the outside, although it was closed when we walked past so we couldn't go in and be wowed. We wandered around the museum for a bit, saw the Guernica, which was a bit of an anticlimax really, and we also saw a few Dali paintings, though not any that I knew.

After that we walked past a pet shop where we saw bald cats, cute kittens and cute puppies, of which a photo or two was taken, and then we had "montaditos" (basically tiny sandwiches, though I just know Ed's going to correct me on that) in this shop where you have a choice of 100. Obviously, I had the chocolate one, I also had Spanish omelette and roast chicken in like garlic mayonnaise stuff ("ali oli"). I also had a chocolate milkshake (some might say I overdid the chocolate on this  day). Helen was still a bit peckish after that, so I had prawns and Philadelphia, which was actually rather nice, and another chocolate milkshake. Then we wandered around the shopping areas, not going into El Corte Ingles, but into H&M. I did not buy anything, though I did try on a skirt which would only have cost me 9E90. It was a bit meh though, although it was the same one Katie was wearing (lol).

After Katie bought a H&M hat, we went into Oyshga, or whatever the heck it's called, and Helen bought some stuff, and I just got annoyed because surprise surprise they didn't have my underwear size so gah.

Next up was heading back to the hostel, where after a quick nap I had a boiling hot shower and washed and dried my hair, and then we went out (I keep getting the feeling I'm missing out other things that we did, but I can't remember it all). We had a free shot in a pub, and then we went to the Irish bar, where we passed the whole night, drinking Vodka and Pepsis (diet Pepsis for Helen and Katie, after Katie had a Guinness), which culminated in us arguing very loudly at about 3am in discussing who was better: Superman or Batman. Me and Katie said blatantly Batman, because at least he doesn't wear his pants on the outside of his trousers, and he is less camp than Superman. Helen counterargued this by saying that at least he can fly and doesn't need a sidekick. There were many more arguments about it, but it all came to a halt when we left the pub and on the long way back we saw the Congreso de los Diputados (basically the Spanish House of Commons) where me and Helen had our photos taken and the guard was staring at us oddly. After what seemed like forever, we got home and at about half 4 got into bed.

At 9am this morning we had to get up, because we had to be out of the room by 10. At 10 past 10 we were handing over the keys and the like. We took a walk around a park, which was full of people rollerblading, but was rather chilly. Then we came back to the hostel, collected Katie's bag and said goodbye to her. Also, at some point before the shot and the Irish bar last night, I believe we also went to Plaza de Espana, where there is a statue of Don Quijote. Bit underwhelming to be honest. Anyway, me and Helen went to have coffee in Starbucks (by "coffee" I mean Helen had a juice and I had a hot chocolate with caramel) and then we went to see the Royal Palace, which was impressive. It looked a lot better than Buckingham Palace, and me and Helen were guessing at what they had in there, I was going for an ice rink, a bowling alley, and an indoor and outdoor swimming pool (joined), among other things. Then I made some witty comment about sheds BUT more importantly, I missed out the meal last night (this is turning into Ed's blog - no structure whatsoever). We went to what is essentially Pizza Express, though it was very nice. I had a cocktail which was orange at the top and red at the bottom, it contained cava, but that's all I remember. We had garlic bread to start, and then I had this amazing folded over pizza thing, containing serrano ham, mozzarella cheese and boiled egg, though I couldn't finish it all, it was insanely filling.

Yes, so, after the witty comment about the shed (it's a smaller building right by the palace, and when Helen asked what I reckoned it was, I said "the shed", not that witty after all, really) and then we sat in the garden, where somehow we talked about my old gerbil and mazes among other things. at half 2, we headed to Plaza de Callao, where Starbucks was, to meet Helen's friend from Bristol, who is in her Spanish class. She is called Alison and is studying Maths here at Complutense university, apparently in North West Madrid. She also speaks with an American accent. We had more hot chocolate, and then we said our goodbyes because me and Helen had to go to catch the train.

The train station was a nightmare, turns out the 60E tickets were "go" only, so we had to pay another 35E to come back. I was very stressed but it was all ok because we made it onto the train and the like.

Journey back was quite boring, I just dozed for a lot of it, Helen watched a film with Matthew McConaughey (or however you spell and pronounce it) and Sarah Jessica Parker, and some small child drew a picture for her, which she left on the train (on purpose, I might add). I forgot to mention that I half broke my suitcase on the Madrid platform, but it's ok, because we did fix it, although there were 2 people sitting in our seats who moved when asked. When we got to Granada we walked to the Gran Via, and then I got a taxi home, watching a bit of the Goyas (Spanish Oscars) with Pilar, who got annoyed because I wasn't sure if Penelope Cruz was Spanish or Mexican or South American (she is Madridian (I don't know what you call them) apparently). I also had some biscuits and chocolate milkshake, although now I have a headache so I think I'll be off.

I've just realised I've missed out many other things that happened, such as Helen buying the Madrid Starbucks mug and postcards (not from Starbucks), watching Poseidon on the train up, which had Freddy Rodriquez in (he was in Bobby, though he wasn't in Poseidon for long) and me and Helen kept thinking we were underwater. If I remember anything else I will tell you, I know how David likes details (you are name checked so much in this, I think only Helen is beating you). So chao chao for now.

GAH. I am not in Madrid. But first, last night. Me, Sarah and Helen went to the cinema to see Bobby, about Robert Kennedy. It was ok, not fantastic. We were also the only people in the cinema. We saw the half 11 showing, so at half 1 this morning we left, and I got home at about 2, 2.15am. Gah. I just went straight to bed, after resetting my alarm for 7.45 instead of 8.45. I got up when the alarm went off, showered in a lukewarm shower (at this point I was starting to get into an absolutely foul mood) dressed and dried my hair and the like in a cold room (more angry) and then headed off to meet Helen in front of the Triunfo Gardens. I was 5 minutes late, but it doesn't matter because Helen was 10 minutes late. We caught the bus to the station, and I had chocolate and churros and Helen had something else ... Neopolitan or something, I don't really know. We caught the 10 o clock bus and as far as I can remember, it hadn't been snowing, and even if it had been, it was barely anything. So we headed off to Madrid, only to be pulled over by the police after about an hour and a half and had to stop in a service station where we waited. And waited. And waited. For about 3 hours. Apparently there was too much snow so all lorries and buses had been forced to stop. We eventually gave up and returned to Granada at about 4pm. Me and Helen caught the bus back into town (since the bus station is outside of Granada a bit) and then Helen got off at the Plaza de Toros stop to go to the train station (she should have got off at the late stop really, ah well) and for me to get off the number 8 bus on the Gran Via, cross over, and wait a minute for the number 7, which brought me home. After frightening Pilar, I sat down at the computer and that's been about it really.

Lectures yesterday were a bit uneventful, except as far as I know Ivan and Elias didn't turn up to Crisis Matrimoniales. We're supposed to have it today as well, but I'm not bothering to go, since I don't really care about this year any more. Lol. Instead I am going to the cinema with Helen and Sarah. After class yesterday (which I left "early" at 9.15pm, despite the fact it's supposed to finish at 9, tsk) I stood around in the freezing cold outside the Riviera waiting for Sarah who was late because her Spanish flatmate is ill. We went inside the Riviera sans Helen, and Mohammed was very nice and said hello and gave us a big smile and sat us down at a table. Over the next hour and a half I drank 5 tinto de veranos (red wine and lemonade, though I'm sure I've explained this before) and had lots of tapas. When it came to paying, I didn't actually have enough money, so Sarah paid, although Mohammed thanked me for the 50c tip. Mwahaha. Also I saw Matt (from Sheffield) and we talked for a bit and then I was knackered so I got money out and caught a taxi home, though that involved waiting bloody ages. Gah. I spoke to Richard on the phone for a bit, since he'd called me 3 times, and we talked for a bit, and then later Ed called me, he hasn't received a letter from the BBVA, but will let me know if he does. I made him stay on the phone for ages, wasting lots of his money (mwahaha) and didn't really talk about a lot really, I know Dom was mentioned, and how Richard essentially says I have no personality, though he will deny this. At 1ish we said our goodbyes, and I went to bed and then a short while later to sleep I do believe.

This morning it was SNOWING when I woke up, well when I got up, after texting Helen asking if we could make lunch 1 or 2 instead of 12, because I'm too lazy to get up at 10ish. So we made it 2, and I headed down to her flat in part snow, part non snow, part sleet. We had some odd curry thing but I wasn't very hungry, so I only ate half of it. We (me, Helen, Elena (Italian flatmate) and Teresa (Swiss flatmate)) talked for a while, and then me and Helen went to the Corte Ingles to book the bus for tomorrow, which turned into a nightmare, because the internet site kept saying busy, and the phone lines were also busy. So after like half an hour, it was finally booked, and we paid our 16odd euros each, and then went to look at the big television in the Audio Visual section which my dad likes. However, it wasn't on. On the other hand there is now a price tag: 6,500E. It's nice. Then Helen bought some post it notes in orange and pink, after much deliberation, and then, after walking into a dark cafe called "El Tren" (of which there are at least 3 in Granada I think, none of them actually near a train station) we went into the Alhambra Cafe in the Bib-Rambla and had one portion of churros between us and a hot chocolate each. This totally ugly guy was flirting with Helen, it was very funny. Lol.

Then I came home on the bus, noticing that the snow was sticking the more upwards we went, till I got off at my stop and it was white everywhere. So woo. I came in and Pilar fussed about slipping over and the like and I changed my jeans and my socks. My boots are absolutely soaked through. I also told Pilar we were going to Madrid tomorrow, and she was saying about how there had been warnings for people not to travel tomorrow unless absolutely necessary, but screw that. We've booked it, ergo we are going.

Other than that I've just sat around, it's only been half an hourish since I got in. I packed most of what I need for tomorrow. I am taking the red mini-suitcase, which although massively too big for 2 or 3 days, is my only option with wheels, so I am taking it.

I am heading orf at about 8.45pm (or 20.45 as they would say here, they don't understand AM and PM. Ivan thought it was English, I believe it is Ante Meridiem and Post Meridiem though?) to meet Helen and possibly walk or, if I get my own way, catch the bus, to the cinema in the Neptuno place, which apparently has a big H&M as well. I don't know what we are going to see, but Helen had vetoed "Night in the Museum" featuring Ben Stiller, so at least we won't be going to see that. Thank God. And that is me out methinks.

So, yesterday was a bit dull, had my last Contratacion en Masa lecture ever (I am totally going to fail the exam, it's insane how badly). I still haven't found out whether we can take all the laws into the exam or whether we have to learn them all, which I find, this being a Law course in Spain, highly unlikely. After that lecture I went out to the Dia supermarket, where I spent 20E on mainly chocolate and other super unhealthy things, including chocolate milkshake, five bars of chocolate, hot chocolate, whole milk (UHT - yuck) and 2 packets of biscuits. Lol. Then I caught the bus home with Pilar (who paid) and about 2 minutes after arriving in the house left again. Ooooh, I forgot to mention that before I went to Derecho Penal yesterday, Pilar made me try hot chocolate, but continental hot chocolate, which is just melted chocolate essentially. It was gorgeous and there was much biscuit dipping.

Anyway, I met Helen at 9.25ish, and we met her friend from the Czech Republic, who was quite cute, although I can't remember his name. Then we stood around for a bit in Plaza Isabel la Catolica, and then we headed to Bella y Bestia for tapas (there's a surprise). There we met up with this girl from Germany whose name I also can't remember and said hello to Italians. Alessandro turned up also. He needs some talking about. He is extremely goodlooking (guapisimo is the word) and everybody thinks so, but he is such an idiot. He showed one of Helen's flatmates his penis (in the middle of the street) and asked her to touch it because it was "hurting". He's also done it to another girl I believe. He's just argh. Lol. He's funny though.

After tapas, I mosied (I am never going to learn how to spell that, I suspect it's moseyed or something like that) on home, calling Richard on the way, and didn't do a lot really, read more of "We need to talk about Kevin" (which is quite good, but insanely depressing) and nodded off to sleep at 3ish.

My alarm went off at 10, I got up and knocked it off, opened my shutters and got back into bed, dozing till 11ish, when I got up, only to discover Pilar was in the bathroom, but a few minutes later she was done so I showered and dressed. Just before leaving I changed into my green shirt, because I haven't actually worn it since I got here, and I do like it, even if it is a bit formal maybe for everyday wear. I went down to the Law Department to change my modules. Looks like I'm stuck doing Damages Law, but I don't care, I am not even going to go to the exam, there is no point, it's only 4.5 credits, and pfft. However, I do believe I am now registered for more than 36 credits, which might be a problem, so I have to email Aber later asking what happens if I go over the limit.

I also received a letter and a form from the BBVA in English, asking me to fill in the form for tax purposes. Scary. I might ring Ed to see if he gets something like it, I've got two months to send it off, so I can wait to see if he gets it, since he set up his account a bit later than I did. I called my parents but they had no idea what to do, and suggested emailing Aber, which I might as well do. I am plaguing them with emails lately, well, 3 emails is not really "plaguing" but I barely send emails to any Faculty people in Aber, and I'm babbling about something that is even boring myself so I shall stop now.

I think that's it so far for today, since it is 20 to 3 at the moment, there is still a lot of day left. I have Derecho Penal at 6, then a gap of an hour (might see if Helen wants to go for a hot chocolate, as is the norm on a Wednesday) and then Crisis Matrimoniales. I don't think I'm going to do one of the essays, it looks like a lot of work, and it's only for 10 marks. That means half of my essays won't be done, but pfft. Honestly, I'm starting to think this year isn't really worth the effort of revising, because even if I did fantastically well, it only alters my final grade by a maximum of 2.7%, which although my dad said could be borderline between two grades, I am not that bothered really. Since they take your top 80 credits and times them by three, I've already had a first in a 30 credit module, a 2:1 in another 30 credit module and a 2:1 in a 20 credit module, my top 80 credits are definitely going to be 2:1s. Still, I think I might have to actually work harder next year, as long as they are problem questions, since discuss questions suck absolutely and just require lots of bullshitting and not a lot of actual knowledge.

Last night I also talked to Graham for the first time in ages, I think his internet has been down or something. I don't know, anyway we talked for a bit, though not about a lot really. I also talked to Ian, who said people had talked about me at the Fencing Christmas Dinner. I was slightly concerned about this, but apparently it was just people like Liz and Claire saying they missed me, which is really nice. :)

And that is me out ... probably.

OK, so I haven't blogged for a few days. It's not been very interesting, except for Camborio, which is a club in caves, which at the top has a FANTASTIC view of the Alhambra. It's all very nice. So, to start the evening off, me and Helen met Marie-Clare and various others and went to a small bar which was almost empty. After that, everybody else headed to an "Erasmus party" in another tiny bar, this one slightly more pub-like, and with a few more people, but all me and Helen did there was go to the loo and then leave.

We then went to Plaza Nueva where me and Helen were hungry, so we bought chips from the kebab shop (where me and Ed went when he came here), and while we were waiting for them (which took bloody ages) at about 0.58am the Italians phoned Helen to ask where we were (meeting them and the Austrians etc. at 1), and they just walked off as me and Helen stepped out of the shop. I didn't mind too much, since Italians get on my nerves a bit, especially when they speak Spanish, since it is almost incomprehensible. Anyway, me and Helen sat down to eat some chips and then a (very fit) guy walked over to Helen and said hello and he was accompanied by a friend, who was none other than Miguel. We said hola, found out we were both going to Camborio, and then he left to say hello to his friends (also all very fit and well-dressed - where the heck have all these guys been hiding? Portuguese are supposed to look like the Spanish, only with bigger teeth and googly eyes and generally more hairy), just as me and Helen were joined by Martina, Sarah, the Ukrainian girl, Larisa and Daniella (the ginger Italian). Kisses were exchanged and after offering chips we started the trek to Camborio (seriously, it's like a 15-20 minute walk). Me and Helen talked about how glad we were that we were not wearing heels because the cobbles are a nightmare to walk on and then we arrived at Camborio. We paid our 6 euros to get in (7 euros without the "Erasmus discount") and had a quick look around the caves before putting our coats in the cloakroom. Then everybody went to the bar by the dancefloor, except for me and Helen who went to the bar closest to the door, where we got our free drink. Then we drank and danced for a while, obtaining free tequilas from some guy who fancied Helen, but we just wandered off and left them after the drinks. Lol. I think we were trying to find the other girls when we saw Miguel, so we had a quick dance and then me and Helen had more drinks (5 euros for a vodka and coke, that's, like, insane!). I think after this the night starts to get quite blurry, but I remember sitting down lots and me and Helen taking photos and generally supporting each other. We kept bumping into Matt (studying at Sheffield) and he kept asking me to look after Helen. After more drinks, terrible photos and some guy falling asleep by us, we headed off to dance again. There was much dancing and the like between me and Miguel, and Helen danced with Ricardo and then Sarah, taking a terrible terrible photo of me and Miguel in the process. At some point I remember talking to a French guy in French, well I said "Je m'appelle Bethan" and "J'habite au Pays du Galles" and then he started freaking me out so I refound Helen and then yet again abandoned her for Miguel I think.

I think me and Miguel spent the rest of the time in Camborio together. I also spotted Martina (who has a boyfriend of nearly 3 years) dancing VERY closely with some guy who was quite fit.

Helen dragged me off away from Miguel, although he is strong so it took a while (lol) and I promised to call him and then me and Helen walked down the hill with Sarah, except we kept forgetting to talk in Spanish, but Sarah didn't mind, she said she loved our accents, so that was cool. Helen also had what appeared at first to be a near-death experience, which later turned out to be a tiny cut on her finger where she had scraped it against a wall. We waited for Martina and her guy in Plaza Nueva, before me and Helen headed off. I ended up staying at Helen's on a mattress, because it was lots of effort to walk home or indeed get a taxi. This was about 7.20am. When we got in I discovered 2 missed calls from Miguel, so I texted him something along the lines of I'd text him later, and then promptly fell asleep. Richard texted me early so I kept wondering what the blue flashing light was (my Spanish phone doesn't stop flashing until you read the text or notice the missed call, it's a pain because the light is EXTREMELY bright). Helen had set her alarm for 1, so we sort of just lazed around talking till 2ish, then Helen got up and had bolognese sauce and rice while I MSNd David for a bit. I then went home at 3 and had a quick shower (trying to avoid the horrible blisters on my feet and failing miserably) ready to meet Carly and Helen for "coffee" at 4. We went to this lovely little cafe which served GORGEOUS hot chocolate (L) and we spent over 3 hours there before Carly had to go and meet her friend who I believe is called Katie for some film-watching. Me and Helen spent a long time trying to first of all find a cashpoint, and then more time trying to find somewhere she could top up a Vodafone SIM card for less than 15 euros. Eventually we found one and armed with money and credit we went to the D'Cuadros by Ivan's flat. We were 20 minutes early for tapas so we bore with it and waited for croquetas.

I texted Sarah asking if she wanted to come out for tapas (since she had suggested it the night before) but her and Martina were in a bad state as far as I can gather, so me and Helen went to the Riviera and had 2 tapas there, where I saw a guy who rated like a 9.5 - the Eric Bana looky likey. However, he smoked, and had a Spanish nose, but still had beautiful Eric Bana eyes (almost black) so I drooled over him for a bit (not literally) before me and Helen headed home. Just after getting off the bus, I noticed a text from Miguel. During the coffee with Carly, I had texted him asking if he wanted tapas Sunday, and he said yes that would be fine, what time is best for me. I then waited until 3am before texting back (treat 'em mean and all that malarkey) suggesting 9, but he still hasn't texted back. Tsk. When I got home I spoke to Pilar a bit, then went on the Internet for hours, speaking to David lots (am I on your contact list yet?!) and occasionally to Ed. I also spoke to Alex, but we won't go into that.

I think then I just went to bed, and listened to music for aaaaaaaaaaaages and then went to sleep, waking up at 11 when my alarm went off, and actually getting up at about 3pm.

Tonight is Larisa's birthday, so we shall see how that goes, though I doubt me and Helen will stay out overly long. And that is it. Thank you very much for reading and don't forget to COMMENT. Also, do I have more readers than Ed? He only has me, David and Graham as far as I know, whereas I have him, David, Graham and Mary.

Anyway, that is me out.

Yesterday (well, the day before yesterday) was pretty uneventful. I just did some laundry, then went to 2 hours of Derecho Penal with Helen, followed by an hour of CEM. Derecho Penal was good, it was easy and I understood it all, CEM was a bit dull I think.

Then I met Helen for tapas, and we were going to go to the "Minotaur" except Helen forgot where it was, so we ended up going to the Bella y Bestia miles away, stopping at a nice little Teteria on the way back, where I had a chocolate and banana milkshake (which was nice) and a sugary crepe, which was not so nice. Helen had a Diet Coke (or Coca-Cola Light as they are called here) and then we just went home, so I got home at midnightish. Contrary to what happens normally, Pilar was in bed when I got in, so I just Animal Crossinged and listened to music, but was still awake at 5. Gah.

Today I got up at 20 to 3, I know it's appalling, but I just couldn't be bothered. So I got up, showered, downloaded new songs including numerous ones by Daft Punk, and then, after bringing in my now mostly dry washing, went to Derecho Penal, which totally confused me. But it did Helen as well, so I'm not worrying too much (though I probably should be). Actually, yesterday Derecho Penal finished early so me and Helen went and had a hot chocolate and Diet Coke respectively. I only remember this because we did the same today after Derecho Penal, and then Helen went to get ready for aerobics and I went to try and find some tights. Calzedonia (where they sell all sorts of tights and socks) was out of brown tights, so to console myself I spotted some rather nice brown boots which would do an adequate job of replacing my old ones (they aren't dead yet, but I need to have something to replace them straight away, otherwise I'll be grieving forever), so I bought those with a 10E discount for 29.99.

After that, I still had Crisis Matrimoniales to go to, which was incredibly dull, only me, Ivan and Alfonso turned up out of the "usual group", and it would have been quite uselessly interesting had I understood it. Then, me and Ivan went for tapas, he paid and made me a rose out of a serviette, which was sweet. But I was very snappy for a while, so I felt a bit bad and got all emotional and teary. But then I drank a bit and I was ok, and we got on a bit more. I still think I'm resentful for him being so bloody disorganised. Tsk. It's probably better that we don't see each other any more, but hmmm. After the 2 classes next week and the exam for Crisis Matrimoniales, we probably won't see each other anyway, since I don't think he'll make much of an effort to keep in contact with me.

Anyway, after that I just headed home, showed Pilar my new boots (of which she greatly approved) then watched a bit of "The Last Boy Scout" with Bruce Willis, which was a bit boring, so I came to my room, and haven't done a lot, except counted the amount of shoes I own for David's benefit (19, of which I wear at least 15 or 16 "regularly"). When I went to take a picture of my new boots to show Mary, I also discovered that I've left my camera card at home, so I shall buy one tomorrow in the Corte Ingles, when I go to buy tights as well, and maybe a skirt if I fancy any of them.

And that is me out. Enjoy the read!

OK, so this is mainly just a reply to David's comment. People looking like Jack Straw around here are pretty lacking, ALTHOUGH the Portuguese guy I kissed looked exactly like a young Dermot Mulroney (he looks good in Must Love Dogs).

I couldn't say the name of the film because I never found it out, nor do I have any idea who was in it. It was still crap though.

I wouldn't say I was a "social outcast" being a girl that plays computer games, but I don't actually know another girl who does. It doesn't tend to come up in conversation a lot, but last year in a house of 4 boys and 4 girls, only 3 boys and 1 girl ever played on the GameCube, and I figure next year I'll be the same. Also, I'm the only girl who ever gets excited about things like the Wii coming out. Talking about computer games, I bought loads of new clothes on Animal Crossing today. Yay.

I also like Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and I've never met a girl who's read all of those either.

When I was sunbathing I was wearing a t shirt, skirt and flip flops. Gavin got a bit weird about it earlier, and started claiming I never wear clothes, which as Ed knows, is not true.

Apologies for not having interesting "nuggets", and now I feel put on the spot. Also, I don't really *do* witty comments.

They show Footballers' Wives here, dubbed, obviously.

I saw a bit of LA Confidential tonight (Kevin Spacey has the same birthday as me), he looks a lot like Russell Crowe in that film (Russell Crowe is also in the film), although Kevin Spacey's a big cuter, even if he does look EXACTLY like Robert Lindsay. I used to wonder why someone who had filmed American Beauty carried on doing My Family on the BBC. Lol.

Also, when ordering my plane tickets, I put down the name "Miss Bethan A Evan" as the card holder (missing out the S on my surname if you hadn't noticed), but apparently both BMIBaby and ThomsonFly have "confirmed" my payment, so hopefully everything will be A-OK.

And I think that's me out. I'm not sure how to do snazzy endings. All that is left to be said is that I never finish anyth

So, I returned home last night with sweeties, and watched some American film which was a bit shit, and then I just sort of sat around doing nothing.

Today I got up at 2, and after showering sat in the garden sunbathing for a few hours, reading and listening to music.

When the sun left the garden, I headed inside and played Animal Crossing and Mario Kart for a bit. On MK, I now only have 1 more cup on which I have yet to get 2 stars, it's the one with Rainbow Road, in which I ALWAYS mess up by falling off the edge.

Before my 2 hour lecture, I picked up the University Paper (for all of Spain, not just Granada, they have a separate one) and read that nearly a third of university students in Spain smoke. It MUST be less in the UK.

Then I went to Contratacion en Masa, which started at 20 past 7, and was half full. It was a bit dull, but I didn't mind too much because when he asked questions I could understand and answer them, although obviously I didn't. I just sat there quietly note taking.

After that I came to the webcafe, where I looked at flights to go home in March, can't decide between the 7th and the 14th. Gah. I also finally found someone worth copying off for Crisis Matrimoniales, and reprinted my Caso Practico for Derecho Penal.

That brings me to now pretty much. Wow, what an uneventful day.

I imagine this will be a pretty short and concise blog.

Yesterday was pretty uneventful, spent all afternoon on the Internet, doing nothing, before meeting Helen at 8 for tapas. We went to Bella y Bestia, had 2 drinks, then bought Sangria, white wine and sweeties and headed off to Sarah's. There we were by far the most sober people, even after drinking lots of the Sangria they had prepared.

We met 2 English guys, one from Manchester and one from London, and we talked for a while. The Mancunian didn't speak a lot but the London guy was nice and friendly.

At about 2, me and Helen headed off home when some of the others went to a club, and I was very good and walked all the way home. Then I just listened to music and Animal Crossinged a bit until I fell asleep. I woke up at 11, when my alarm went off, but then opened my shutters and put the computer on and just got back into bed, where I dozed until half 2. Got up, washed my hair and the like, and met Helen to go to the Häagen-Dazs café, where after much deliberation I chose to have banoffee icecream, cream, and bananas on a crepe. And it was delicious, though I might go for the cookie crunch next time ... they all looked fab to be honest.

Then I came online, 3 and a half hours now lol, and have managed to get into a worse and worse mood about Crisis Matrimoniales, and this stupid piece of work that we have to do, that Iván doesn't know how to do either. So that's all great.

Sigh. Iwan told me they were going to Disney next year (him, Dad and Sue) but that I wasn't invited, so I called up to get Sue on the phone going mental who "couldn't deal with it right now", though why I'm not quite sure. Still, makes me glad to be here, 1,000 miles away, instead of in a house full of shouting snd screeching.

Right. Again, this is stupidly late bloggage. Lol. Yesterday involved after all the normal, boring stuff, going out for tapas at 9.30pm (after an hour in the webcafé). It was originally meant to be with Helen, Martina and Sarah (the Austrians), but Helen had an argument with her boyfriend, and had decided to keep the peace it was easier not to go out last night. So we had numerous tapas in the Riviera, where Helen joined us for about an hour, then dashed off home ready to be Skyped by Ben, and we had yet another drink. We had about 4 there I think.

At about 12ish, we went to Hannigan's, and after that to Metro's, stopping on the way for me to top up my phone and call Helen one last time to make sure she didn't want to come out. It was about 1ish when we got to Metro's, and since it was ridiculously early for Spain, it was practically empty. It soon started filling up though, so that was ok.

We danced for a bit, and then I found Marie Clare who introduced me to people, including a (rather cute) guy from Glasgow who absolutely could not dance for shit. Marie Clare kept dashing off to dance with whoever wanted to dance with her (whether they were fug or slightly half decent) and I went to the toilets for 35 minutes to call Richard, which ended up with me being a bit miserable.

Then I headed back downstairs and spent ages trying to find Marie-Clare, though Ricardo helped me find her. We danced some more and then she started dancing with this guy, who if I am perfectly honest, barely rates a 3 on The Scale. I got so bored I ended up with a Portuguese guy called Miguel, who while not a terrible kisser, certainly wasn't great. He rated probably a 7ish on the scale. He had a nice soft jumper and a posh looking coat, though what that has to do with anything I don't really know ...

Me and Marie Clare had planned chocolate and churros for breakfast, but she decided she was "too tired" (in my book, she meant she was going home with the guy she was talking to) so me and Miguel headed off to our respective houses, after I gave him my number, knowing that he won't call, but not particularly caring either.

I walked all the way down the Gran Vía, then managed to hail a taxi. I could easily have walked home, but I felt maybe a taxi would be safer.

After I got in, at about 7ish, I just went straight to bed, though my answerphone woke me up about 10 minutes later, because it calls me all the time when I have a message. Idiot.

I didn't set my alarm, and woke up at 2.30pm on the dot pretty much. I then messed about on the internet, washed my face, and messed about some more. Then I showered, and am still on the internet doing not a lot really.

Wow, that was actually a lot less interesting than it could have been.

So, yesterday, since last night when I got home I completely forgot to blog. Good start.

Yesterday started as usual, getting up at 1ish, showering, sitting around etc. At about half 5ish I went to the webcafé to print off my Caso Práctico for Derecho Penal, which I had done in Word 2007. I got to the webcafé, only to discover it won't do a compatabaility mode or anything, when I tried opening it in Word 2003, I just got a load of random symbols. So after not being charged for using the computers, I walked to the roundabout at the bottom of the Triunfo Gardens, where I caught a taxi home to move all the work into Notepad. Then I walked quite briskly back down the hill again and this time printed it out, after messing about with formatting and font and the like. I made it to Derecho Penal 20 minutes late, or thereabouts, and discovered at the end we didn't even have to hand it in until next week anyway. However, it made the lecture seem to go a lot quicker, since it was a lot quicker. After the lecture, me and Helen waited for a guy called Matt (who is from somewhere Northern, and who goes to university in Sheffield), and we walked to Hannigan's (the Irish bar) to meet up with Helen's boyfriend. There was much British handshaking to be done, and we just sort of sat around for a while, until I had to go to Crisis, for the presentation. As is becoming the norm for my lectures now, I was late. I sat down next to Luis and Elias turns around and goes "we thought you might like to present it", to which I just laughed and he smiled and then everybody laughed and it was all ok. I texted Richard for a bit, who I think is inviting me to a wedding I'll be highly unlikely to make, he also carved "3.14" into a pie he was having for dinner.

After a few questions from the lecturer and other students on Group 4's presentation, it was our turn. I was slightly panicky that I was going to be the only person talking, but the other girl in the group (I think her name is Rosa) didn't talk either. Iván did the first part, then Elias (looking quite fit in a blue jumper, I have to say), then Alfonso and then Luis to finish off. The lecturer didn't have anything to add, neither did the rest of the class, so I figure they did ok, which was nice. After Crisis, Iván corrected my Derecho Penal caso práctico, and I asked him apparently extremely complicated grammar questions, such as "when do you use the subjunctive after quizás (maybe)?" the only example he could give me is "quizás hayas perdido tus llaves en el tren", which didn't really explain a lot, though he did spend a lot of time thinking about it. Helen had called me during this, but I didn't have any credit to return her call, so I had to wait until she called me again, asking where I was. I said my goodbyes to Iván and walked to Escuelas, a tapas bar by the Law Faculty, only to call Helen from my UK phone and discover they were still in Hannigan's. I strolled over to Hannigan's, stopping on the way to get a "Dulce de Leche" crepe, which I believe is something like caramel. Still, it was delicious and warming, and only cost me 1E70. I had a Tinto de Verano (red wine and lemonade) waiting for me in Hannigan's, which I drank and then we went to Bella y Bestia for tapas, since Escuelas had been packed when I was waiting outside earlier. I like Bella y Bestia for tapas, first of all you get a warm ham and cheese bagel, either chips (with garlic mayonaise and ketchup) and either noodles or cold pasta. The second tapas is some sort of meat, lamb I think, in some sort of sauce. The third is an omelette with lettuce and tomato, and the fourth is meat on a stick.

Anyway, so we hung about for hours in there, eating tapas fast, with Helen occasionally saying hello to people.

When they (Helen and Ben) left for Helen to get changed, I decided to head home, and I couldn't be bothered to make much effort in hailing a taxi so I walked home at 1.30am, freaking out because I'd lost my Spanish phone. I got home only to discover it was in my uni folder, and that's why I hadn't been able to find it earlier either, which was a bit of a relief.

Then I listened to music for about a minute, but listening to music with earphones in when you're a bit tipsy is always a bit weird, so I just went to sleep. I woke up at half 11, and put my heater on, so it would be warm when I eventually got out of bed at about 10 to 3. I haven't showered yet, just had a quick wash, because we're going out later to the Erasmus night in Metros (a gay bar), "we" being Helen, Sarah, Marie-Clare and numerous other people whose names I can't quite recall at the moment. So before about 9ish tonight, I have to write an essay "elaborating on a "convenio regulador"" which I don't know what that is (terrible terrible grammar, sorry), and I also have to read a case and answer 2 more essay questions. I have until Monday to do it, but I'm a bit worried cos I have no real idea what I'm doing, and these questions actually appear to require some research and knowledge on the subject, so much eekness. I think that is it really, except to say that I am awaiting a text from Iván to explain to me what a "convenio regulador" is and that I also need to top up my phone sometime today.

I got out of bed for this, so you’d better be grateful.

Right. So, my alarm went off lots today, until I just switched it off and got up at 1.30pm. I showered and at 2ish headed off into town to find a church that was open. Easy, I though. But no. Apparently churches aren’t big on being used by the public, and they were all shut. I ended up sitting outside the church on the Gran Vía, generally getting odd looks. Still, I sat there for about half an hour and then left. This was, of course, instead of me going to the funeral. Then I went and got the rest of my rent out of the bank and generally milled around for a bit before catching the bus home again just before 4.

I forgot to mention that my dad today actually started just before half past 9, when the idiot next door started playing his shitty “music” really loudly.

When I came back, I did half of the DP caso práctico, which when you have the textbook, is surprisingly easy. So yay. Then … a ha. Then it was time to head back down into down for DP at 6. The lecture itself was quite uninteresting, but I noticed a few new faces. A New Year’s Resolution to actually turn up to lectures, perhaps?

After the lecture, me and Helen went to my Internet café to print off her caso práctico and a práctico for International Private Law … I think. Then she headed off to Hannigan’s to find her football-watching boyfriend, and I sat around on the PC, at 8pm realising I might want to check my Granada mail and CEVUG (for Crisis). No e-mail (but then, there never is), and on CEVUG I had mail. Panicking (for no reason) I opened it, only to discover an email from Iván saying he’d done our part of the work, which was, to be honest, a bit of a surprise and I’d spent quite a bit of time just before this saying to Richard how he probably hadn’t done it. So, apologies to Iván.
Then I turned up late to Crisis, and say by myself for ¾ of an hour listening to an extremely fast “guest speaker”. At the end … wait. On the way to Crisis I called Paul, and got Fred, who was lost on the way to or from the supermarket and who, apparently has a job this evening “doing something in some place” or words to that effect. They are living in Barcelona at the moment, but I told Fred how it was 18°C here today but still snow on all the mountains, and he sounded most impressed, so there is still hope yet.

Anyway. At the end of Crisis, I dashed to the front so I could sign the register. Then I went to say hello to Iván and Elias. I gave Iván a quick half-hug and a kiss, then said “hola” to Elias who had greeted me with “hola galesa”. I had to ask him for a kiss, which I got, but he also sort of apologised because he was all stubbly. Good news: I fancy neither Elias nor Iván.

Then Elias told me about Ken Follett, an author from Cardiff, and then Iván came back from wherever he’d gone and Elias disappeared. Then me and Iván sat around in the foyer of the Aulario, just talking, and it was nice. He showed me what he had done for the presentation, and I was impressed. Apparently, because he is crap, he has to give some of the presentation tomorrow.

Also apparently (I use that word too much, especially on MSN) Alfonso (Iván’s flatmate) has gone back to Málaga for a bit, because him and Ana keep fighting because he can’t find a job.
We didn’t really talk about much else, and so we left, him to go to Alfonso’s (the guy in our presentation, not the guy who lives with him), and me to go back to the Internet café called “Free Memory”, while  calling my parents on the way to see how the funeral went. Mum, according to Dad, was “not looking brilliant”, and Sue said she looked “grey” (her hair), “wrinkly” and “very casually dressed” (in contrast with Karl, who was wearing a proper overcoat). Then I MSNd numerous people, including Dom, who has said I can stay with him when I visit Aber in February or March, which was nice. Then at 10pm I switched web cafés and went to the normal one, and was only on there about 15 minutes, before leaving to catch the bus home. Dad called just as I was walking in, so I chatted to him for a bit, then finished off the DP caso práctico and saved it to the USB pen, ready for printing tomorrow. Then I did a bit more DP work, just what I missed at the end of last term, and then I just listened to music while doing a bit of Animal Crossing and Mario Kart.

And that leads us to now, so good night.

Since we are not far into the new year (10 days isn’t long!) I thought that I might start keeping a diary again. I know when I’m older I’m going to regret not keeping one during an “interesting” part of my life.

Dad went to see Grandad yesterday in the … I can’t think of the word … funeral home. That’s it. He said it was upsetting, apparently on the 1st he was asking to see Daddy, me and Iwan, but Grandma and Brian didn’t call Dad for some reason. Mum might have known as well. Hmmm.

On a happier note, I understood my lecture today COMPLETELY, “contractación en masa y protección del consumidor”, which was nice, barely anybody turned up though, despite it being quite interesting. Well, by “interesting” I mean easy to understand and take notes on. I understood quite a lot yesterday as well.

I will be seeing Iván tomorrow (probably) since we have a “charla” for Crisis Matrimoniales. Hmmm. I hope he’s done the work we were supposed to do; he said he would do my part because last week I couldn’t really work, though as far as I know, he hasn’t done it yet. *eye roll* Anyway, it’s not my problem any more. They do presentations oddly here, say there’s 6 people in a group, only 2 people (sometimes only one!) will actually present the work. Seems a bit odd really.

Paul was supposed to be moving to Granada sometime around now, but he’s in Barcelona, and I think he’s planning to stay there for a while. Tsk. Would have been cool to have him here, and I’ve told Helen and Iván he might be coming. Lol.
So, today. I got up at 1ish, then answered most of one question on “parejas de hecho” for Crisis Matrimoniales. Sigh. After that I headed on into town (catching the bus because I’m being very lazy lately) and there I got a baguette in the Bib-Rambla. I was hoping for chocolate and churros but the fantastic place wasn’t open yet. After my warm ham and cheese baguette, I headed off to lectures, stopping on the way to get money out (actually I did that on the way to the baguette place I believe), and buy a 3€50 bar of chocolate and water, which cost me 1€20. I don’t even like the bottled water here, tap is much better, though I have yet to try the taps in the street. Then I mosied on over to my lecture, only to discover it wasn’t on (as I’d been told yesterday but hadn’t understood – sigh) and Helen was a bit annoyed because her boyfriend’s here so she’d gone to the lecture for nothing.
Then we chatted to Marie Clare and some unknown English girl for a bit (she has a pink iPod nano – eurgh) and I went to buy the big white textbook for Derecho Penal, so as to do the caso práctico tomorrow (hopefully). Then I went and had chocolate and churros where I texted and read “Panic” so as to look like less of a loser.

Then (I have to find another word for that) … hmmm. What did I do then? Ah yes, I wandered over to the Corte Inglés where I bought a Spain to UK adapter, which works (woo!). Also, I’m never sue if adaptor is spelt –or or –employer. Well, whatever. I think it’s adaptor actually. Then I bought Mini Cosmo, after saying hola to the “couple” from Derecho Penal (actually that was when I was on my way into the Corte Inglés). I sat about by the big fountain reading Mini Cosmo until some foreigners (not UKian or Spanish) asked me where to find something or where they were. I had no idea what they were asking really, and once or twice they spoke in English, which for some reason really confused me.

After that I went to CEM and after that to the Internet café to do internettily things (like looking at the new iPhone by Apple, which Sam claims he is  going to get – it does look rather cool though, but it’s not out here until Autumn/Winter of this year. I also called Grandma to ask how things were because it’s the funeral at 1.45pm today and I called Dad as well.

Then I came home (by bus again), and watched the end of House with Pilar (who is recovering from non-flu at the moment) and then I tried my new adaptor, which as I’ve said before works. Then I didn’t really do a lot, sorted out my bag, switched the PC on and then off again since I didn’t have the internet. I highlighted stuff in my CEM booklet and some of the contents page in the DP book, then I DSd and now here I am, and here is also where I bid you farewell.

So anyway, after various talks bethan said she was off to a house party where, i suggested, she might pick up a rebound. She said a rebound wouldn't happen. i soon found out why. My friend IMed me saying that he and Bethan were now engaged.

Honestly. What a jerk.

"I don't have time for a girlfriend because I'm so disorganised. I'm sorry, it's all my fault".

Too fucking right it's all your fault.

I can totally do better than him.

Honestly, I'm a bit pissed off with him, probably through no fault of his own.

Since I came back from Oviedo, something has changed. I don't know if it's just because of stress or what, but since Monday night I've seen him for 2 hours last night, before he had to dash off and work, during which he was supermiserable anyway, which in turn made me unhappy, and I went off to the toilets to have a bit of a sob.

I also saw him for an hour today, because we had "Crisis Matrimoniales", during which he barely talked to me, and was too busy talking to Elias, Elias's friend (who I've been introduced to, but whose name I can't remember), and the incredibly childish couple sitting in front of us. I barely got a kiss from him, I think he knows I'm pissed off though. :(

Also, considering the pile of work he has to do, his flatmate, the aforementioned Elias, has time to go to Italy for 2 weeks to stay with his girlfriend. However, he does seem the type to scrape his degree, whereas I assume Ivan wants to do well.

We went out last night, and it was ok, but I thought I would cheer him up, all I seemed to do was make him worse though, which made me miserable and annoyed.

I think part of the problem is my emotionalness at the moment.

He doesn't have to be distant. :( I could have been nicer to him though, so it's at least partly my fault. Just now when we said goodbye, I just got a quick kiss on the lips, and then he was gone, off to work and eat with his friend. He asked what I was going to be up to now, and I replied that I thought we could have eaten together, but never mind, and he didn't even seem sorry.

Dammit, why are we being like this?

I really like him, and I hope that he likes me too, but he has explained that he is going to get more stressed, which I assume means more and more distant, and I don't know if I can be bothered with it. He's worth a lot, but I don't know if he's worth 3 hours a week, 1 of which is in class.

On the plus side, I've asked him to check the work that I have partly done for Crisis Matrimoniales, and he's said he would, despite the fact he hasn't got time to see me.

I don't even know why I'm complaining, it's just I want to spend time with him. I mean, am I asking too much?

I said last night that he can't not have time to work, seeing as he has Monday afternoon, Thursday afternoon and all of Friday, Saturday and Sunday to work. He says it's because he's not very organised, to which I got a bit annoyed. I'm not even properly entitled to get pissed off with him for at least a few weeks yet, but tough shit.

ALL guys do this. They act all interested in you for a bit, and then be it a few days, weeks or months later, suddenly they get all distant, but still proclaim to like me.

I think, why start something in a way in which you know you can't keep up?

Gah.

I've just had a lovely night with Ivan. We had Crisis Matrimoniales, during which, as always, nothing was achieved, although at the end I talked to the lecturer explaining that I couldn't access the website so as to be able to do the work, but she just said she'll see if I'm registered, though what's going to happen if I'm not I don't know. It also means that I can't do all the work we've been set so far, it's riduculous, it means I've already lost like half my marks for that module. To be honest, I should be organised and actually get my PIN though. I've just set my alarm for 11, so hopefully when I go there tomorrow I should be able to pick up my PIN. Eek. Then I'll actually have to start doing work. Hmmm. Maybe if I do the Spanish course in Feb, which apparently is worth 6 credits, then I can hopefully drop Derecho de Danos, which as far as I know, hasn't had any lectures, and is all virtual, so I can't access any of that either. Bit worrying really. Gah.

Anyway, on with the evening. After I spent most of the lesson writing notes to Ivan, we went to the Hollywood DVD rental place, where he tried to rent "Los Amantes del Ciclo Polar" or something along those lines, however, they didn't have it there. Next on the list was Saw I, but that was being rented. We might just get Saw II tomorrow, though since neither of our computers can play DVDs, I don't know if there's much point. Gah. I also told him he looks like Eric Bana in Munich. Lol. We eventually rented Ice Age 2, although, like I've already said, his computer doesn't play DVDs, so we ended up watching "Lulu on the Bridge", which was weird. It was in English, with Spanish subtitles, though I do believe I could have done a better job myself of the subtitles. Tsk. Still, there were lots of cuddles on the sofa with Ivan, which, as always, was absolutely lovely, though I was a bit reminded of the first night with him, when he showed me music on his computer, and we were sitting on the sofa really close to the screen as well (I know, I know, we'll get square eyes). Also, we had pizza, although I only ate half of mine, due to not being the biggest eater ever, and it was quite a big pizza. Ivan said I have hair like the girl in the film, and later he said that I smiled like her as well. Lol. It was a bizarre story, which I can't be bothered to explain now. If you really want to find out what it's about, look on IMDB.

On another note, I finally paid off my 265,000 bell mortgage on Animal Crossing. I do have my suspicions though that the next mortgage is going to be something insane, like half a million bells or more. Eek. Still, I will get there, in the past 3 or 4 days I've made over 100,000 bells. This is because on the days when I have no life i.e. when I am not seeing Ivan, I play Animal Crossing almost continuously. I can get a goot 7 or 8 hours out of it. That's quite bad actually. I've even neglected Mario Kart in favour of it now, although I only have to get 2 stars in I think 3 or 4 more cups to get the 2 Star rating, which would be nice. I don't hold out much hope for ever getting a 3 Star rating, since this seems to involve cheating aka "snaking", although I did get 3 stars on the 3rd retro cup on 150cc Mirror Mode, which I was rather pleased about.

I think my Spanish is getting better, though occasionally I get panicky and suck a lot. Gah. I also think I should maybe think more before I say it, because although some of the time I am right, some of the time I am wrong, and I need to be right all the time. I've noticed my spelling in English is starting to go to pot, as is some of my speech, though my spelling is a lot more noticeable. I keep getting "write" and "right" confused, among other things. I only mention this because I accidentally wrote "write" instead of "right" about 5 seconds ago.

Tomorrow, me and Ivan may go and buy MiniBethan, although we may not, and since we had planned to watch Saw II and then have me stay over (pyjamas on, of course), I don't know what we're going to do. Watching a film with him is nice. :)

Anyway, I think that it enough for now, although I probably have a lot more to say, I want to check out my brand spanking new house on Animal Crossing, and mainly I'm just a bit bored and not really in the mood for talking anymore.

Chao,

Bethan.

So, we are having an interesting chat tonight (me, Dave and Graham) and I am in no way being pressured into writing this blog. Apparently I don't talk about them enough.

They are making boy jokes. *eye roll* Me and Dave are currently awaiting Graham's opinion on Girls Aloud, since we both "like" them. I still maintain that Biology is the best song by them.

Also, they remember North and South, "famous" for such songs as I'm A Man, Not A Boy, and No Sweat. They were good.

I don't know what else to say, blogging in real time is quite hard, since I am too busy typing to actually be doing anything.

Graham still hasn't answered.

...

For the purposes of the following dialogue, Tangerine Dream is Graham, and Let's post the boys to war. Mother, what are you worrying for, it's somewhere he's not been before? is Dave.

Tangerine Dream says:
I think
Girls Aloud
are
absolutely
Let's post the boys to war. Mother, what are you worrying for, it's somewhere he's not been before? says:
..
Tangerine Dream says:
and utterly
brilliant, perfect pop with attitude

And now I am blogged, as You-Know-Who would say.

OK, 2 points:

1. Mary can also cook. Apologies to Mary.

2. The German girl I'm living with is moving out. :O Apparently she is not happy in our house, so she is moving down into Granada somewhere. According to Pilar though, she hasn't made any friends in her classes, but I don't see how that can be a reason for moving out. To be honest, I can't really see why you would want to move out, I am getting used to Pilar now, plus she helped me peg out my washing the other night, and brought it in for me the day after which was nice.

Hmmm. I have more than 2 points to discuss, since I should really talk about Ed visiting.

Well, he arrived very late Friday night, and we went out with Helen and came home about 3ish. The rest can be found on Ed's blog at ead4.aber.ac.uk/spainblog.html because I can't be bothered to jsut reiterate what he said, as in general he sums up the weekend pretty well, except I should be allowed near that chocolate. It's amazing. Also, Ed didn't mention how much he absolutely sucks at "Wanted" and "Whack-a-mole" on Super Mario Bros. on the DS. I kicked his ass on it. Mwahahaha.

Also, gah. I just got obsessed about Ivan, but it's ok because Richard has saved me, thank you Richard, if you ever "swing" this way again. :P I think I just wanted attention really. Also, Ivan is the Spanish guy who I gave my number to the other night. We have a "date" on Tuesday at 9pm, but I told Nathan about it, which is why there are speech marks around it, otherwise there is not a lot of difference between what I am going to do and a real date. Ed was not much help, encouraging me with lines such as "But what if Ivan and you are meant to be?", although I could have said that actually. Even if I did say it, Ed should have said "Nah, blatantly you and Nathan were made for each other". Tut at Ed. Still, Ivan is cute, even if he has a "terrible" name and I am not going to go cheat on Nathan, he is too much to lose, and why would I want anyone but him?

On another Ivan related note, I figured even if he doesn't fancy me he was only talking to me to find out if I spoke English so he could practice, but, I think he thought I was Spanish first of all. Spanish, French and Welsh, lol. That was such a pointless statement, but whatever. I never promised this was going to be an interesting blog.

But tut at Nathan since he hasn't texted me today. Tsk. I still love him though, lots and lots, and I am not going to use my supposed superpowers to persuade him to get the Deluxe room in the Meliá Granada, because that is harsh, and all we actually need is a double bed and a bathroom.

On that note, I shall say goodbye.

Also, Ed ordered a cable and a USB stick for me, they arrived today. It would appear that he put my surnames down as Evans O'Keefe, because in Spain they have 2 surnames. Ha ha Ed. Actually it made me smile, but it confused Pilar like you wouldn't believe. Lol.

Ed is coming down tomorrow, but leaving Sunday, so he is doing 20 hours driving to spend what is essentially very little time with me. Still, at least now I won't have to eat alone. Woop.

Also, I really need the toilet, but I am scared to use the toilets here, I'm not sure if I have to ask or if I just go or what. It is confuddling, and I am scared doing new things.

Also, lol @ the guy who has just sat down opposite me with the most chav cap on ever. It is burberry with the NY symbol on it. Superchav.

Other news ...

I had Criminal Law today, which bored me after about half an hour, so I just stopped taking notes. Basically it was the principle of double jeopardy, which means that someone cannot be tried twice for the same crime. However, whereas this was summarised in about 10 minutes in Aber, here he felt the need to spend a whole lecture on it. I don't know why, as I have summarised it in one sentence, and it is basically what the whole principle is. The rest of it was just random examples from the Penal Code, at this point I got bored, though apparently so did Helen. She was a bit worried at the end because people seemed to be handing things in, but me and Helen didn't know what we had to hand in, so we didn't hand anything in. Lol. Helen wanted to talk to the old woman and girl in front of us and ask what we were supposed to hand in, but they were too busy arguing, so we just gave up and walked off. We have arranged to meet at 10.30 tonight. She offered to cook me lasagne, but we are going for tapas instead. I admit, I am still wary of student cooking, have met only 2 students who can cook, Sam being one, Chris being the other, though I think Chris just shoves everything he has in his cupboard into a frying pan and fries it with peppers, so I don't know how much "cooking" is actually involved.

Also, apparently, Nathan was a bit drunk when he sent me that text, and can't remember all of it. It makes me lol, because he said he still meant it, though I don't think he can remember the last part of the text. Mwahahaha. I won't tell him what is in it either. Hehehe.

I still need the toilet, but nobody has gone into or come out of the toilet since I decided I needed to go, so I have no idea what to do and I REALLY need it. :(

Also, I am a bit sad because they no longer sell the coat I wanted in Dorothy Perkins. It was green and very lovely. Sigh. :(

The longest place name in the world spelled in English is Krungthepmahanakornamornratanakosinmahintarayutthayamahadilokphopnopparatrajathaniburiromudomrajaniwesmahasatharnamornphimar- navatarnsathitsakkattiyavisanukamprasit in Thailand, although it is more commonly known as Bangkok.

DS FanGirl | dice:
also what did you do in school for 23rd april

Frankly, women whose fathers don’t own helicopters do not interest me. They are so shallow. dice:
23rd april?

Reason for OMGness 1:

I was in a class just now, and the guy who asked me did i want to join his group for seminars sat next to me with 2 of his friends. Every so often, he was asking if I understood everything, and helping me a bit, and then, towards the end of the class, he asked if I spoke English, to which I giggled a bit and replied, "I'm from Wales", and he said, "Ah, I thought you were French!!! I was wondering if you would mind practicing english with me because I'd like to get better, and we can talk Spanish too if you want."

So we swapped numbers, amidst much whispering from his friends and nudging each other.

AND

He is cute.

Reason for OMGness 2:

A text from Nathan:

"Didn't want to go a day without contact. I miss you. I love you. Had all my family asking about wedding bells when i talked about you. you must be something special. they could tell by the way i talked about you. like no one else . had a 50/50 day so i'll say goodnight and text you tomo. maybe you could be the one that'll get me thinking."

I am bored, so I thought since I haven't blogged for a while, I would keep you up to date on my life.

My parents are coming out 2nd-6th November, which will be nice, they are looking forward to seeing me, and I them. If that makes grammatical sense.

Also, I was kind of hysterical on the phone to Nathan a week or so ago, and now he is coming out 26th Nov-1st Dec which is also nice. :D

***Adverts***

Listen to Cobra Starship, and other bands on the Fueled By Ramen record label. Thank you.

***End of Adverts***

Um, not a lot else has happened really. I was able to re-steal interweb from my room for an afternoon, but sadly no longer as far as I know.

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmm, we had a mini moot style of thing in Penal Law last Thursday. The guy said I spoke really well, so yay.

Also, Pilar said last night that I am gettin more "suelto" (I think), which means talkative, and she also said my Spanish was already getting better. So woo.

On another note, I cannot stop sleeping. It's bad. Well, I stay up till like 4am, and then get up about 2pm. It's bad. I don't even do anything except listen to music and play New Super Mario Bros on the DS Lite. I am on World 8 now - the last one. :O

In another news ... it is Nathan's mother's birthday today, so all his family are going out for a meal. He said he would have invited me had I been home (L) so that is nice. :D I miss him lots.

Well, until I actually do something, I probably won't blog much more. Apologies, but my life is completely and utterly boring at the moment. It consists of getting up at 2ish, sitting around the house till either a) I have lectures or b) it gets to 8 o clock ish, then I sometimes buy a baguette, and after my lectures go to an interweb café and just stay there all night. Sometimes there is a break in the monotony, and me, Helen and a few others, the Austrians or the Portuguese. The Portuguese are really nice, but a bit hard to understand, especially the girl with the big eyes and big teeth because I think she just speaks Portuguese. Lol.

I am currently talking to Ian, and it reminded me of a conversation I had with Ed on the way down. I said that if I was in charge of a country and had to decide where to put the capital, I would do what Spain did and put it right in the middle of the country, so it looks nice and neat, and it pretty "close" to everywhere. But then Ed said that most capital cities are built near ports or the such, and whoever chose to put Madrid in the middle of the country was an idiot, or words to that effect. It is boiling there, or so I have been told.

Has anything else happened ...? I do not think so, so I shal bid ye farewell. Also, if you don't already, you might want to peruse Ed's blog, at users.aber.ac.uk/ead4/spainblog.html. At the moment it is being a bit boring (sorry) but only because, like me, Ed is doing absolutely nothing. That reminds me, Ed might be coming down for the December puente, which should last, like, a week, because there are holidays on the Tuesday and Thursday, and it being Spain, they take full advantage of holidays looming to just not open anywhere.

And on that note, I shall bid ye fare well. Fo' real this time.

Frankly, women whose fathers don’t own helicopters do not interest me. They are so shallow. dice:
i dont like dom
Fueled By Ramen | The faint disco music and ambient sense of get funky could only mean one thing ... dice:
i know you don't
Frankly, women whose fathers don’t own helicopters do not interest me. They are so shallow. dice:
talk to me about him so i can work myself up into a frenzy

Lol @ Richard:

Frankly, women whose fathers don’t own helicopters do not interest me. They are so shallow. dice:
i dont believe the public are good enough to write an encyclopaedia

Frankly, women whose fathers don’t own helicopters do not interest me. They are so shallow. dice:
because they all write LIK DIS LOL

So, Pilar has a "fear" of electricity, and completely freaked out when she discovered that I have been using adaptors in my room. She demanded to look at the plugs, and spent about 10 minutes complaining about British plugs. Pfft. At least ours are safe (well, safer than here anyway), and if you so much as breathe on them, the plugs don't fall out or produce sparks. Hmph. And then, remember that she is "scared" of electricity (understandable, if these are the only plug sockets she has used) she suggested that I use my hairdryer in the bathroom, where, yes, there is a plug socket, but it's high up on the wall, so that makes it completely safe because maybe she figures that hot damp air doesn't rise.

Sigh. ALSO, everybody (well, most Europeans) complains that the British and USians don't speak any other languages, BUT, I was talking to this Bolivian girl in the first Derecho de Danos lecture I turned up to (more about that later), and 2 points. First of all, she knew where Wales was, and asked me how to say hello in Welsh, which was nice. And secondly, she said that everybody speaks at least 2 languages, and there's loads of foreign people here, but the Spanish don't bother learning other languages because they don't really travel (cos they're, like, a 3rd world country). So that's a big FUCK YOU to all you Johnny Foreigners who complain, SPAIN IS JUST AS BAD. If not worse, because almost all international trade is carried out in English, and only Spain and random South American countries speak Spanish. So there. I Heart The UK.

Also, Pilar had a go about me straightening my hair, I said that most girls do it in the UK, it's just the fashion, and she was like, but do you know it's bad for your hair, and I was like, well yeah, but ... you know ... my hair looks crap if I don't straighten it, so what's a girl to do?

Back to Derecho de Danos, turns out, like Crisis Matrimoniales appears mostly to be, it is a "Virtual Lecture" aka they timetable stuff, but nobody turns up because it's all done online. I mean, come on, how fucking lazy do you have to be to not give 3 hours of lectures a week.

Plus, I don't understand what the hell Crisis Matrimoniales is about, the lecture yesterday (only the 2nd one the lecturer has turned up to), appeared to mainly be the lecturer going "so do you know about blah blah blah?", people shaking their heads, and then her going "ok then, so do you know about this?" and it's like, where's the "teaching" element to this? Either we are seriously spoonfed in the UK, or Spain's just shit. I'm going for about 10% of the former, and 90% of the latter. Spain is just shit.

I am looking to go home around the end of November, Nathan would book shifts off work, but I just spoke to Sue and she was like, what's the point? I KNEW she would be like it. Still, she said to have a word with Daddy later, so we'll see how that goes.

On a side note, my hair looks crap today ... stupid Spanish water. *shakes fist*

I wished Dom a happy birthday yesterday, in fact, I texted him the regular happy birthday song, then on MSN I did the way people did when we were little kiddies (squashed tomatoes and stew, bread and butter in the gutter etc. etc.), then I did it in Welsh. THEN I looked it up in Spanish, but turns out in Spanish it absoultely sucks:

"Happy birthday
Happy birthday
Birthday Birthday
Happy Birthday"

Seriously, NO imagination here whatsoever.

In other news, it rained here yesterday. Dun dun dun. Helen (from Manchester, who's in my Criminal Law class) said that it started when she was in a class, and the lecturer couldn't get control of the class because they were just fascinated by the rain. L-a-m-e.

I bought New Super Mario Bros. today for my DS Lite, because Ed said it was really good, GameSpot says it's really good, and in general everybody does. So yes, I bought it, even though it was expensive and the instruction booklet is only in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian I think. Gah. It seems quite good. I like it. It is nice and bright and happy and just what you want from Nintendo. So yay. I have played it for a bit. I shall keep you up to date. I keep dying on World 1, Level 5 (I think, it's the level after the tower where you have to defeat Mini Bowser, or "Bowsy" as he is known in Spanish) at the moment, but I'm sure I will get through it.

Righty-o, I am orf for more Marioing, well, Luiging really, since I am playing as Luigi, because Ed does not like Mario, and tbh I prefer Luigi.

Fare thee well.

Memory stickage on teh way!

Ed says I shouldn't blog unless I am already online, but I feel like if I didn't put these up now certain people i.e. the only person who actually reads this, Mary, may get bored, and it provides a useful excuse from uni work. :)

But I fear not much more blogging shall be done, already I am lapsing a lot, and my entries are becoming shorter. I think I only blog when I need to talk about something, and now I can talk to Mary on MSN, or Nathan on the phone, or Ed, althogh he's very unemotional. I think his blog is just his life, there is not much about feelings and teh such in there.

Well today is a bit chilly, it was about 16 degrees (who the hell uses farenheit nowadays, except my parents and teh Americans, apparently) at about 10am, though it doesn't properly heat up until 1 or 2, so now it's probable boiling out there, though it does look a bit cloudy, and Ed said there might be rain soon. It has not rained here since May. I think I've mentioned that before though. Coming from a country where it rains about 360 days a year, I am missing it slightly, if only because now sunny days don't make me go "OMG, it's sunny, let's go out somewhere", they make me go "oooh, it's only 24 degrees today, bit chilly". Lol. However, it does get very cold at night here, Pilar says there can be differences of up to 20 degrees between the day and the night. Gah.

I shall have to depart in a moment, I have 3 hours of lectures ahead of me. Derecho Penal isn't so bad, because Helen's there, although it is 2 hours long, and Contratacion en Masa is ok I guess, though sometimes I just stop listening for a bit, and it takes me ages to work out what he's saying. He's nice though..

Also, I turned up for my first Derecho de Danos lecture today, only for one other (Bolivian) girl to show up, and say actually she thinks it might be a virtual lecture. I was like, no classes at all?! And she said sometimes, but it was a "Virtual Learning Experience" or something.

Oooh, today I bought teh multicoloured headphones, I was a while in the shop (El Corte Ingles) panicking about what colour to buy, but in the end I went with orange, cos orange is cool, and I don't known many orange clothes, so it won't look like I'm wearing earphones that match my outfit. Although, they come in "10 vibrant colours" the packaging informed me, so could these be the new Converses? Except I can slightly justify lots of shoes, but justifying 10 pairs of earphones ... I'm not so sure ...

On that note, I shall bid you adieu, cheerio, adios, toodlepip, hwyl fawr, bye bye, ttfn and the such and head off to my lecture.

Or maybe he didn't.

Nathan said "I can see you living here with me" (L).

He said on the phone "Sometimes I don't know why I fucking bother", on working overtime so he can afford to see me and do things with me.

So, as far as I can tell, Nathan now isn't talking to me. I spent over 3 euros trying to get hold of him, because every time I place a call it costs me 30 cents, and when he eventually answers I'm a bit stroppy, so he spends all of 2 minutes talking to me with a broken fucking connection because his signal is so bad in his house, and then pisses off.

He even got annoyed when I suggested he looks into getting a home line, so when I do call him, and I actually get through, I can hear what he's saying, and vice versa.

I'm incredibly upset, but also very angry. I have texted him asking to text me back when he gets the message so I can call. I've had the delivery report, but he hasn't replied yet. We shall see.

Also, Ed says the correct comparison to give Pilar would be saying she was Castillian, not Andalusian ... or something like that. :S I think.

ARGH!!! Talking about politics in Spanish is so hard!!! Especially as I can't even talk about it in English!!!

Ok, so I have done at least 4 other blogs, but since they are on my laptop, which now has no Interweb, you will have to wait until Christmas or until I buy one of those memory pen dealies.

Apologies.

Another rant about their washing machines. They don't have "spin" so all my clothes are dripping wet. Tsk.

So Spain has regained its title of "Country which least deserves to be in the first world", and also "Country which shouldn't be allowed in the EU". Due to lack of water here, I can only use the washing machine once a week. Which is insane, as i need to do 3 lots of washing: bed clothes, darks, and mediums/lights. Which means 3 weeks before all my stuff is done. It's crazy. I hate Spain. Pilar was like "if we use too much water, we get fined". Where Ed is, and over all of Northern Spain, all it does is rain, but they don't have any water. Seriously, wtf kind of first world country has no water?! Pilar was totally freaking out. Nightmare. It's crap here. Plus the bloody banks don't open in the afternoons or on the weekend at all, so I can't actually get any money out to top up until Monday morning. LAME. Stupid Spain. I want to go home. :(

So far, in teh league tables:

UK Spain
Weather 0 1
Water 1 0
TV 1 0
Cosmo 1 0
University 1 0
Nightlife 1 0
Men (in a purely 1 0
observational
sense)
Nathan 1 0
Friends 1 0
Family 1 0
Proper plug sockets 1 0
Showers 1 0
Prices 0 1
Dorothy Perkins 1 0
Radio 1 0

Total 13 2

See, Spain isn't doing that great. Actually it's incredibly shit. The only thing going for it is the weather and the prices. It is not enough. The UK wins by far.

Also, NO ONE has heard of Wales, or if they have, they think it's a county in England. Fools. Pilar said something to me last night, and I explained that Northern Ireland is part of the UK, but the Republic isn't, they are essentially 2 different countries. And Pilar was like "no, Ireland is Ireland". And I was like "er, no. 6 counties or (however many) belong to the UK, same government etc. And she was like "no, they govern themselves", and it's like "NO THEY DON'T. THE REPUBLIC DOES, NORTHERN IRELAND HAS SOME DEVOLUTION, BUT IT'S LIKE DEVOLUTION IN WALES, ALMOST NONE". And she was like "Que raro" which means "How strange". Idiot. How can you NOT know that?! Then she argued that they govern themselves, or have the Irish Government, and I said yes, but that's just the Republic. Fool. Gah. Why don't people know anything about the UK?! Being in Spain makes me feel very nationalist about the UK.

Just cos they want to steal everybody's fish in the EU. Hmph.

First world country, they must be joking.

I wonder if by "tangle free" on earphone packaging, what they actually mean is "super tangly". I also am seeing why are were only 9 euros 90. The sound quality is terrible. I was going to buy the multicoloured (ones that came in difference colours, not numerous colours on one set) ones but they were about 22 euros, which I felt was a bit pricey, though when my cheque clears (if it hasn't already) and when I actually bother to go and collect my debit card, I might get some. Though then I will have a crap spare paid of headphones. Hmmm. If only you could somehow listen to the quality of them before you bought them. Still, multicoloured. You can get red ones.

On another subject entirely, I just called Nathan from my phone. :D We spoke for about 20 minutes, and it only cost him 10p, it cost me more, because I'm paying about 36 cents a minute because it is peak time. Still, he called me back after I'd run out of credit, which was nice, though we're not sure how much that's cost him. It was nice speaking to him. :) He might be coming out at the beginning of May and June now, depends on how many holidays he gets though, which he won't know until Christmas. He might be getting lots of time off then, so fingers crossed he does! I asked him what he was doing this year for Christmas, and he said he doesn't really plan, he usually goes round his sister Ann's, whether she has her children there or not. Hmmm. I sort of offered that he could come to ours, but I kind of skirted the issue, since I should really check with my parents first. Lol.

Gah. I went to register today, only to discover that all the modules have dropped by a credit each, so I had to pick another module. Gah. I chose "Derecho de Danos", damage law, which will hopefully be just tort. Or should that be hopefully it's not tort, due to me only getting a 2:2 in it last year. Hmmm. Still, it was a high 2:2, so it's not too bad. We shall see. I've already missed the first 6 lectures on it. Lol.

Back to the earphones. I am totally going to buy a coloured pair when I get cheque clearage and debit cardage.

Also, they do not have top-up cards in Spain. You just give them your number, and they do it for you in the Vodafone shop or wherever. Bizarre. I have yet to top up. I'm waiting until I can take loads of money out of the bank, because supposedly my first top up is met by Vodafone as well, up to a maximum of 75 euros, so if I put 75 euros on, I should have like 150 euros credit, which would be nice. Bet I just couldn't understand the Vodafone sales lady though and what actually happens is the first 75 euros I put on just gets taken away by Vodafone. I hope not. Also, it is 12c to check my credit which is a bit tuh, especially as I can't understand what the woman says, so I have to check online. Lol.

I'll just give the earphones to Iwan or something, or just keep them lying around, spare earphones are always handy i.e. when either me, my dad or Iwan breaks and/or loses our own.

I'm orf now, due to having a lecture to go to at 6, and another one at 8.

I am feeling a bit peckish; hopefully Helen or whoever I meet won' t have eaten either, and so they will eat with me. Hmmm. I was supposed to meet Marie-Clare and maybe some others at 8, she hasn't replied to my email asking if I can be late, due to being in a lecture 8-9. Helen asked if I wanted to go to the cinema, but when I told her I didn't finish lectures till 9 she was a bit "Hmmm". We shall see.

Anyway, chao chao for now!

Hmmm. So, first stop on the tour tomorrow, since I have the day off, will be the Corte Inglés to buy some of those earphones. These are seriously terrible. I fancy the red ones, but worry that every time I take them out, I'll think my ears are bleeding. Lol. We shall see tomorrow.

Also, Helen asked do I want to go to Seville Saturday till Sunday, which would be cool!

Well, today I have done almost nothing. I went to my lectures, Helen was in my Derecho Penal, and luckily she didn't understand too much that one guy said either, so that was a bit of a relief. I'm sooo hungry. :( I don't like eating by myself though. :( Gah. I went to the Interweb cafe for a bit, but I was a bit bored, although Richard was pleased because he got to see me on teh webcam. Lol.

14.38 10 Oct

I am blogging because I'm bored, and I feel like it should be something I am doing. Hmmm. Though I don't actually have anything to report, since all I have done since I last blogged is sleep. Still, I managed to get a good 12 hours in. So ... hmmm. I've got 3 lectures today: 2 hours of Criminal Law starting at 5, and an hour of Mass Contracts. So far I've only made it to one Criminal Law lecture, which turned out to be a guest lecture by some Chinese Criminal Law person, on the merits of Criminal Law. Sigh. What a waste of time that was.

According to my computer clock it is 18.40. I panicked slightly when I looked at it, but it's just messing up, as usual.

Mary seems very unhappy in Aber, I feel sorry for her. I think she just needs someone to bitch at/with, and then she'll be ok for a bit. I also think she has a bit of 3rd year syndrome, where you start getting fed up of uni life: it has its good points, but at the end of the day you live in a shit heap, and you have no money. Luckily I think I might be avoiding it somewhat, because I've taken a year in Spain, so it's like starting university all over again, except it's completely different to the UK.

Nathan was supposed to have a day off today, but he's gone in anyway, I think they asked him too, though he said he might only do 6 hours. He's still there now though, so I assume he's doing the full 12. I don't know how he does it. He hasn't had a day off in at least 10 days now. I suppose he has to do it, because he needs the money for Council Tax, car MOT, mortgage etc., but I still feel sorry for him. If I could help then I would, but I can't, due to not really having that much money of my own. Gah. Useless.

Pilar's got her son and granddaughter round. They are very loud. The baby cries a lot.

This is turning out to be the bittiest blog ever. Pfft. Right, I'm off. Ciao ciao!

I totally forgot to tell you this earlier.

I was walking home, and I was past the roundabout (about 20m from the entrance gate), when this boy pulls over on a motorbike/moped dealy and asks me something, I think it was did I have a cigarette, which to which I replied no. Then he said "Donde va?" but what I actually heard was "*mumble* va?" and he kept calling me closer and then he took his helmet off and asked me if I wanted to ride with him. Tsk. When I said no, he asked for a "beso" (kiss). To which I obviously replied "no, tengo un novio" (I have a boyfriend) and he kept asking until I just walked away, but he didn't drive off for a while. It was creepy. :( Have sympathy for me.

Well, I just had a lecture on Mass Contracts and Consumer Protection, it only lasted an hour and a bit though, instead of 2 hours.

It was actually really good, I understood almost everything, and the lecturer spoke clearly and repeated stuff. He also spoke slowly, and with almost no Andalusian accent. Thank god.

Let's hope the rest of the lecturers are the same.

Fingers crossed.

Well I have finally bought a Spanish SIM card. I also ended up buying a phone as well ... but that's cos I'm lazy and couldn't be bothered to find someone to "liberar mi movíl" (unblock it). So now I am on Vodafone ES, which hopefully, thanks to Mi País, allows me to call home for only 18 cents a minute between 8pm and midnight Spain time. So that should be quite nice, as it means I can speak to Nathan lots. =D

Alex just asked for my numbers, though I doubt he will call. He is full of good intentions (or bad intentions?). He asked how to say "hello, can I speak to Bethan please?" in Spanish, so if he does call and ends up speaking to Pilar, god knows how he will pronounce it. Lol. Still, it would be nice to speak to someone British.

In other news, I took money out of the bank today, but there were so many people there, I coudln't be bothered to change my address, so they might send my card home. Hmmmm. That would be a problem, as the banks close before 2pm every day, and don't open back up, so if I don't get money out before then, I'm screwed basically. Gah. Lazy Spaniards.

I still have 3 hours till my lectures start. They are 7-9 today, just one class though, "Contratación en masa y protección del consumidor". Sounds very dull, but I have bought the text book, so I'd better stick with it.

I talked to Mary's boyfriend Jon last night. He seems to get Mexico and Spain confused a lot. He is also bad at being funnily sarcastic.

And that is me blogged for now.

Maybe it's like Austrians being assumed to be Germans, if they are ever assumed to be Germans. But it's worse for them, because they don't even have any links, like the UK. Gah. I CANNOT EXPLAIN IT. And it is frustrating. =(