Estudiar (to study)

Song of the moment: Seek up- Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds: Live at Luther College (it's been playing non-stop for like an hour now)
I meant to write this for a couple hours now. It's like 11 here now and I just finished studying for the night. I have class tomorrow at 8:30 now so I should have kept a better eye on the time but hopefully I can complete a blog and get to bed at a decent time.
Sorry that my last post was a little scattered. I had a lot of thoughts and did not really know how to organize them. I hope to make this a little more understandable, especially since more has happened in the weekend than during the week.
I went to see the movie on Thursday night. It was a British movie in V.O.S.E., meaning version original subtitlos espanoles. Therefore, it was in English which was nice because the dubbing can get pretty annoying. The movie was good. It was about a man with Tourette's Syndrome with OCD. It was called Filthy Dirty Love. I enjoyed it and it was nice to meet the girls in Sanna's house.
Friday I had class again. After class I came home and finally got to skype Mom. Then I took a nap because we didn't have culture class and I knew I would be up late. I studied a little and at 9 met Sanna at the bus station because we planned to go to the movie that night at the University as well. We went into the center and walked to the University (which is up a huge hill). We got a coffee along the way. There was a talk going on before the movie, so we sat outside and talked until people started to come out. The movie Friday night was about depression and was called Wilber Wants to Kill Himself. I thought it was a good movie. It was a little bit of a comedy, but dealt with the subject pretty well.
After the movie Sanna and I went back toward the center and looked around because Carnaval was in full swing. We caught the end of a drag queen show and saw some other street performers and many people in costumes. We bought some popcorn and made our way back to the bus station.
When I got home around 1 o'clock, Ana and her sister, Simona, asked if I wanted to go out with them. I decided that when in Spain do as the Spanish do and start going out at 2 (insane, I know, but I'm only here once). So we got ready and left for the bus at around 2. We took the bus to the center and went to a bar because the club wasn't open yet. We hung out in the bar and met some "bombestos," firefighters. They were nice and we talked with them awhile. One of them spoke Spanish I understood pretty well, so I was able to have a conversation. Someone said he was from Morocco, so it might be why he didn't speak as fast and pronunciated better than many of the natives do. Then we moved onto the club.
The club was interesting. It was a cool building, it looked more like a bar than a club with nice tile floors and tiled walls and an old wooden bar. It was nice. However, they only played techno music. Now, I will dance to just a drum beat, but listening to techno music for more than 10 minutes makes me feel dumb, as it takes no talent to produce. But I had fun with Ana and Simona and we ended up being chatted up by these older guys who bought us some drinks. I have to say it was an interesting experience. First off, the drinks in Spain are way too sweet. Everything has to be cut with some kind of syrup (they cut their beer with fanta...I have still to try this). Second, I don't know what men that age were doing in a techno club...one can only guess. They were nice enough and, as I kept my distance, they kept theirs. However, as it is a different culture it feels different than at home, where I know how the boys were raised. I don't know how to explain it, they were not mean or aggressive, just different.
Anyway, we left the club and took a taxi home. We got in around 6 and I took a shower because smoking is not ban in clubs here and I smelled like an old man's ash tray. Gross.
Saturday I didn't do very much. I got up around 10 and then did some studying. I hung around and eventually decided I should probably go out and do something in town. I didn't feel like riding into the center on the bus so I went down to the ocean and looked at it up close for the first time since I got here. I walked along for a while. It is very beautiful, but I think every family in the town was there. It was nice to see some of the locals. I saw lots of children, which I haven't really seen around. I sat for a while and watched the people around me. One little girl sat and fed the pidgeons right in front of me. I am not particularly fond of birds flying over my head, but I decided to stay. A little boy came over and was very excited by the bread and the birds. It was cool cause I could learn form the family talking to the little boy.
Saturday was the first day I really felt a little lonely. I just didn't want to go around by myself and wanted to have someone to talk to as I saw everything. But it passed. I came home and watched some tv in Spanish and went to bed early.
I woke early this morning because we had to get the 9:30 train to Fuengirola (pronounced Fwen here ola). Magdalena (a girl in my house) came to wake me up just as my alarm went off because we had not talked the day before about when we were leaving and she wanted to make sure that I got up. We met Sanna at the bus station and Julie and Eileen were on the bus when we got on. We exited at the center and walked to the train station. After buying tickets for the train (which is always weird cause they won't take my visa without a pin..I have to figure out if I have one) we boarded and took the 45 minute ride out to Fuengirola.
The town was very pretty, but very touristic. There are a lot of hotels and more expensive restaurants and people walking around with suitcases. We had a little trouble getting our bearing but we found a map in a Papeleria. We wanted to find the market and we asked a few people for direction. We got there pretty quickly. Sanna and I walked the market together and then went and looked at the ocean. We met the other back at the market entrance at 12.
It could have been a streetmarket at home (except for there were no greasy food carts). The people were selling things that weren't particularly marked from anywhere, although there were a few special things. It was a nice place because things were so much cheaper. Things are so expensive here.
After the market we decided to go find something to eat. We decided on seafood because it is at the ocean. So we looked at a few menus, decided on one restaurant, but their kitchen did not open until 1 or 1:30. What you must understand is the Spanish find eating lunch before 2 a ridiculous idea. So we settled on a cafeteria with much less variety. The meal was good, not the best. But I am in love with spanish tortilla (eggs and potatos) so it was worth it.
After lunch we headed to the castilla, the only thing to really see in the town. We walked up towards it and for a while wandered around trying to figure out where the gate was. We found the entrance and walked up a hill. As we entered I saw a bird on the lawn. It looked dead so I said something to Julie. She said it was just hiding and I said I didn't think it would hide like that. So, Julie decided to test it by throwing a rock gently in front of the bird. It didn't move so she threw one a little closer. We were pretty convinced it was dead (or it was a very talented bird) but Magdalena decided to try throwing a rock one more time. As she threw the rock (which did not hit the bird), a few girls came down the hill. They said something in another language, but Julie, who speaks 3 languages besides Spanish, understood them. She said that they said, in Norwegian, "Look at those girls throwing rocks at a turtle." We laughed about that for a while. We could not understand how the bird could look like a turtle, because it definitely looked like a dead bird. Julie explained that in Sweden (where she is from, sort of) they think the Norwegians are stupid, which just made the whole thing funnier. I thought it was interesting to learn that the Swedes had one people that they thought were stupid, as we have similar prejudices in US against others. It's cool to get to hang out with so many people from different places I know nothing about it.
Back to the story....we laughed about the turtle thing for a while as we walked up to the castle. We decided not to spend the three euro to go in, as it looked like there was nothing inside, and just walked around and enjoyed the view. It was quite beautiful. We made our way back down toward the gate. All of us wanted to stop and get a picture of the dead bird. As we were coming up on it Julie wondered if maybe the bird looked like a turtle from their angle. We stood where they were when they exclaimed, "poor turtle!" and had to admit it sort of looked like a turtle, or a mushroom, maybe, so it was the shrooturbird. It was silly, but it was nice to laugh with someone, especially the people in my class.
After the castle we were done with the town and headed back to Malaga. Julie, Eileen and Magdalena were tired and took the bus from the train station back to the house, but Sanna and I wanted to go see whether there was anything going on for Carnaval. The main street was very crowded and full of people in costumes, more children because it was day time, but it looked like maybe we just missed the festivities because everything was being cleaned up. Since there was nothing to see, we took a walk down toward the harbor because I wanted to see the large, old ship I had seen from the taxi I took to the house from the bus station the first day (the only thing I had noted of any beauty). We saw it, dry docked on some sand a the side of the harbor full of big cruise ships, and then took a bus home.
Since I got home I have eaten and studied and chatted with Melanie. I know that this week I have a test on Thursday, so I would like to do well. This week it looks like I will go to the castle here with Sanna, because it is apparently worth a look around and I can't leave Malaga without seeing anything. I may also go to the cathedral with Melanie. She says there is a day that it is free and that she would like to see if before she leaves on Saturday. Because she has been here for six months there will be a farewell party for her at the house. It will be a potluck type thing. I told Magdalena I would make her macaroni and cheese before I left because she has never had it in her life, so maybe I will make it that day.

PICTURES:
Malaga
Fuengirola

Happy Superbowl everybody! (I will not side because I do not want to upset my readers, I hope the commercials are good. I'm glad they will probably be on YouTube tomorrow. Let me know of any good ones.)
Jenn

PS I would just like to share that there is a cat making the most awful screaming noise I've heard right outside my window.