I want to let everyone know that there will be a second voice on the blog; that of the lovely and talented Miss Melissa. She will be sharing some of her thoughts about Spanish culture, politics, literature, philosophy, festivities, travel… marshmellow cream and other deep, deep thoughts. An indepth profile on Miss Melis COMING SOON…

Kelly:  She draws really well.

Enrique*:  No she doesn’t. She is terrible. I want to jump out the window.

Kelly:  OK, then go. Jump out the window.

Enrique:  Ladies first.

*Enrique is one of my 15 year old students

Pros and cons to living on the first floor:

Pros:

• no elevator? no problem
• window serves as a television
• plants can be admired from the street
• there is always someone to talk to
• Michael Jackson karaoke on 2nd floor is amusing
• internet cafe below house gives us 50% discount

Cons:

• creeps standing across the street can look in
• due to aforementioned con, not advisable to walk around naked
• can smell dog poop from our couch, if there is any, that is 
• last weekend had a conversation with a guy while he took a piss in the street, 3 ft away

This Friday flamenco with a cute boy?

After four years of inching my way towards Lavapiés, I have finally made it! Toma ya! See kids? Dreams do come true if you get kicked out of enough apartments. But don’t worry if you get kicked out, because your very own little apartment in the immigrant neighborhood is just a slumlord away.  Here’s a nice shot of Lavapiés in all it’s glory:

Just kidding about the slumlord part. Our slumlord is super sweet and gives us aloe vera plants and sets of knives. Slumlord love! Oh, and our place isn’t a slum. Pictures coming soon…

I am going to try to start writing in this again. There are so many funny things that have been happening to me and I want to try to record some of them and share them with all of you, and also I am going to eat curry for 365 days and blog about that and see if I can get a book deal out of it. Just kidding…

So Halloween was two weeks ago and the kids at my school were all excited. The American assistants were free for one week to prepare a haunted house in the basement of the abandoned boarding school and it was super scary! We made about 882 students scream like girls, 756 grip each other in fear, 569 laugh, 367 call for their momma, 112 refuse to continue, 87 refuse to enter at all, 7 hit/push/swing at an assistant in costume and 1 cry.  It was like the greatest moment of my teaching history when I saw some of the boys who play football clinging to each other and shrieking. No really. I got extreme pleasure out of scaring the living crap out of my students. I didn’t even feel guilty about the girl who cried. Here are some pictures:

High points:

• chasing students down a dark hallway with a locked door at the end
• hiding behind curtains
• eating lots of Halloween candy
• fame
• taking a cat nap every day
• going to the Halloween store and spending other peoples money
• fog machines and strobe lights

Low points:

• clean up
• older students pillaging the candy box
• working on the weekend
• running into a wall in the dark and spraining my thumb
• fog machines and strobe lights

So, all in all, I must say that Halloween at Villalkor was a success. The kids talked about it for a whole week, which is like a record since they usually don’t remember anything for longer than a few minutes, maybe an hour.  I’m like, kind of a big deal at the school now. B… maybe C list celebrity status over there. Thanks for reading and I’ll update soon! Mwah hah hah haaaaa!

I’m in Chicago watching the pres. debate with Nate, Tom and Mirko. But you know what? I don’t even care. I don’t give a rats ass. And do you wanna know why?

This is why.

It’s so wrong. These dudes on the TV are yacking about some economic crisis and I’m goin ga ga over a $400 bag. People I AM A PRIME EXAMPLE OF WHY WE ARE 12 TRILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT.

Hi Madre! Sorry for not posting in a while. I’ve been all too consumed with EUROCOPA 2008 to take time out of my busy futbol watching schedule! Tonight we, er, Spain, won the Europe Cup against Germany.

photo borrowed from as.com

I so wanted to call each and every German exchange student we ever had and obnoxiously cheer into their voice mail box (Florian above all). My boyfriend, Iker Casillas, is fantastic. He’s super excited about winning and hardly had to do anything, Spain was playing so well. That’s good for me because he needs to save his energy for things like cleaning the house and rubbing my pies (pies = feet, duh!).

My other boyfriend (the Italian one) is bummed because last week they lost to Spain in overtime. Dang penalty kicks! So he had to seek refuge in his native country during the championship. Surely he and all his non-champion friends didn’t so much as peek at the TV all night and drowned their sorrows in fettuccine (who could blame them?) He’ll be home soon though. 

We are both getting so excited for the trip! My room is all packed away and in 2 days a French girl will come to sub-let for 3 months. Our new roommate Carolina is precious. She is from Colombia and seems to fit in perfectly with the three of us. Will post pictures of her soon. 

Nathan Buhr came to visit. He was wrapping up his European tour and running low on funds, so our plans to go to San Fermines (the running of the bulls) together are canceled. Another friend from college is passing  through Spain around that time, so I might still end up going. 

Well, tomorrow I have to work so better get off to bed! Iker won’t be home til morning anyway! Kisses! KB

P.S. Outside my window there is a group of people playing “We Are the Champions” on a huge ghettoblaster. I can hear it clear as day and I’m six stories up. I assume this will continue until day break. I’m not even exaggerating.

Hi Momma! I got a dress on-line from J. Crew for Erika’s wedding. I guess she like, wants me in it, or like, something. I’m glad that the only friend that has ever asked me to be in a wedding has really good taste, because now I’ll have not only a really expensive dress, but an actual wearable, really expensive dress. I wonder if some women go through their lives without ever being asked to be in a wedding? I can’t really think of anyone else I know who would ask me to do it. I’m actually hoping that no one else does because I’m not sure if I trust their brides maid dress judgment as much as I trust Erika’s (did I mention she let us choose from three? Now THAT’S a friend!) Anyway, here’s the dress. It’s so cute. And the color? Kelly green!

PS I know the dress that she’s going to wear but I’m not tellin’

Hi Mom! Last night Emilio and I took some practically professional pictures… with my MacBook camera. We are looking really good. I think taking up nude cycling has really paid off!!!

Emilio helping me tie my shoes. Awww.

OK, did this come to anyone else’s mind? Anyone?

It’s like nuclear fusion when we put our heads together!

I’ve been interested in getting in shape lately. I joined a gym a few months ago. I’m going fairly regularly. Sometimes I go running in El Retiro park with Mirko. Sometimes I shop all day. But I was thinking of taking up cycling. This is what sparked my interest:

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