a late night in Madrid

It's 2:40 am here, and I'm surfing the internet, which means I'm facebook stalking people, actually. No, I'm writing a letter, and facebook stalking people :). You don't know if you've been stalked--but, honestly, you probably haven't been. Don't worry.

I've been in this city for two weeks--over two weeks, actually! And tomorrow I'll finally move into my new apartment (what a relief that will be! No more living out of suitcases!). I want to blog now because we actually don't have internet in my new place (but Laura--my new roomie--said the neighbors have it, so that should help us out!). I've been living with Biz in her flatmate's bedroom (fortunately, her flatmate is gone for the month--many Europeans take off the whole month of August for vacation). Her other flatmate, Alejandra, just left today to visit her boyfriend in some cool-sounding coastal town. And I move into my apartment tomorrow. It's in a commercial area of the city called Cuatro Caminos (Four Streets) and it's on the 11th floor! I fell in love with the view and, out of the probably ten apartments I visited, this one was my favorite (despite the lack of internet and landline phone). Alejandra found the ad for it posted on a Spanish website and told me that two girls were looking for a roommate who was at least 26. That intimidated me, but I wrote down their number anyway. On Sunday I was scheduling an "apartment viewing" appointment with someone for 9:30 the next night when the minutes on my phone card ran out. I called back that number and the person who answered hung up on me, so I decided to give the girls looking for an older roommate a try. I met them at 9:30 Monday night, loved the place (oh, I will post pictures of the view, etc.), loved the girls, and added my name to their list of prospective roommates whom they would call on Tuesday. The next day I was planning on them not calling me, and was about to confirm a room with someone else, actually, when Laura, in her slow, patient Spanish, told me they wanted me to move in this Friday. SWEET. I hope it's a good Spanish-learning, friendship-making situation.

I do wish that Biz and I could room together, but it was so hard finding two rooms available in the same flat--especially when we don't know the language here. We will be visiting each other a lot--don't worry. We'll see each other most days this semester, too. If no more of our Spanish classes get canceled, that is! In the last week and a half, two classes have already been canceled. But today we had class at the pool to make up for it ;). No, we'll make up our lessons next week, I believe (but, it's too bad because I was thinking of taking a long weekend trip to Grenada or somewhere cool next weekend) (but there will be plenty of time for weekend trips in the coming year).

I am so glad Biz and I chose to come to Spain. The weather is hot, the sights are mesmerizing, the culture is diverse (each state is like a different country, they say), Madrid is pretty cheap to live in--especially compared with other capitals in Europe. You can buy a pair of jeans here for 9 Euros (on sale) as opposed to 100 elsewhere :). And Madrid's Metro system is one of the best, and cheapest, in the world. The people are so nice here, too. Especially the South American immigrants (like Biz's roommate--so hospitable and sweet). I really love that it's a cheap city--I mean, even with the Euro, it's a very doable city to live in.

Here are some of my goals for the year: learn Spanish, build relationships with Spanish-speaking people, try my hand at teaching, see as much as possible in Europe, save enough money to visit Drew in China next summer (or sometime!), make friends with my roommates, start to understand the Spanish culture, take good pictures, find a church with people I can fellowship and minister with, become a more giving person in general. The last goal is recent--lately I have been thinking about giving my time to people--I don't think "quality time" has necessarily been one of my top "love languages" (look it up! so interesting!) in the past several years, or ever. I'm often rushed, very last-minute (you know this already, most likely). But I do think it's one of the most meaningful ways to show you care for someone--giving them your precious time. Doing something cheap, but special--like talking with a friend over for tea at your apartment. Or volunteering at a nursing home. I just finished "A New Kind of Christian" by McLaren (read it, please!) and was struck/stricken? struck (my grammar's getting bad!) by an idea in it, among others: "Generosity [is] one of the most important spiritual disciplines [and] greed [is] one of the soul's worst poisons." Ooh--I hate the idea of my soul being poisoned! That's so--frightening. I do think the Christian concept that this world is not our home and storing up treasure here is ultimately vain is really important. Revolutionary--at least to our nature as humans.

Dude, it's getting late, so I better go to bed. But I'll be in touch (oh, that's another one of my goals--to be in touch with all of you dearly loved ones).

Love, love, love,
Your Cate