The Present in Pamplona

Hello readers,
I´m back in Pamplona and it has been hard settling down here once again but now I have a lot to study so I kind of have to settle down!

Two days ago, I woke up and it was still gray outside so I put my tights and boots on again. When I went into the Oratory for the prayer and mass in the morning, I noticed that Agnes was not wearing dark tights nor boots. After the comida, I was so toasty that I was forced to go back to my room and remove the restricting tights once and for all and put on my chanclas, those are sandals. Since then, my tights and boots have not emerged from my drawer, not do I plan on having them emerge. Even if it is chilly in the mornings when I walk out with my sandals, I refuse to return to the tights because by noon, the sun is shining so brightly that I almost need to put on sun screen to walk around Pamplona! There are tons of dandelions blooming all over the lawns on campus and these other tiny little white flowers too. I like to cross the grass and stomp on them! I´m sorry Debbe, it´s true!

I think everyone in the Colegio gets a kick out of the fact that I have stripped the stockings. The first day that I did, María Fernanda caught me passing by and asked me, "¡O, pero que veraiega (there is some word that means "summery" I think)! ¿Sueles vestirte como así?" (Do you normally dress like this?) And I responded, "¿Como que?" Quickly she shot back with a smile "Tan fresca!?" This means, "Do you usually dress so lightly" or something to this effect.

Anyway, I think everyone more or less had a similar reaction to my chanclas. Just before we said the rosary last night, everyone started attacking me with English phrases like "ggghhhhello, tonight is the eengleez night!" and "You want..no.. We want....no.. I want to espeaka eenglees" and "Dees summer, we go to londres and sOOOO we need to practice eenglees!" And then Marianna said something in "Eengleez" that made everyone laugh and she started yelling "You don´t believe me? You don´t believe in me? Why don´t you believe in me?" I don´t know what she said or what she meant to say when she was asking whether or not we believed in her but we were all laughing so hard that it doesn´t really matter...

I´ve gotten a lot of grades back in my classes and the good news is that I´m doing well in all my classes! Even in History. On the last exam, I answered one question completely wrong but the professor still gave me credit. It´s because I confused the three groups who wrote the constition of 1812 and the three groups who fought in the civil war that occured about that time. But really, Spain has had over 12 consitutions in the recent history and I don´t know how many internal wars (no wonder they could never get involved with world wars) that its pretty awesome that I could remember any three groups pertaining to one of the consitutions or wars! No, I´m just making an excuse for my lack of study in that issue. I have another history exam tomorrow that I´ve already been studying for two days for! Woohoo!

Speaking of Spanish history, I was talking to Chris on Skype today when Inés came in the computer room and asked when he is coming to visit. I told her that he is coming on the 11th of May and she said, (I´ll just translate for you) "Oh too bad, he´ll just miss graduation on the 5th of May!" And then Chris reminded me that there is a celebration on May 5th for the Mexicans: when they became independent from Spain! I told Inés just to make sure she´s know that Chris wouldn´t be missing out on all the fun and to remind her of Spain´s loss in America (hehe), and she said "Yea, and Peru´s is the 29th of July...." I love how the Spanish are such realistic people. haha!

Tonight is the concurso for the cantautores, that means, people who write their own songs and play them and sing them. There is one girl from the Colegio here named Erika who is doing a song and she´s sung it for us here at the Colegio and it´s amazing.

I still haven´t told you about Valladolid and Madrid yet but I will soon. And right after I got back to Pamplona from Madrid, the Clarks came and we went to San Sebastian for a nice visit. And then, the last Sunday, I went with Monica Klem, a friend who visited from her UD campus in Rome and some of the girls from the Colegio, to Vitoria, which is the greenest city in Spain (literally) and in Pais-Vasco. It was beautiful, but I´ve had trouble uploading the pictures to my yahoo acount. Anyway, for now, I just have to concentrate on being here in Pamplona again. It´s good weather now but it´s still good old Pampie, as we, or maybe it´s just I, affectionately call it....

PS In a month from today, I come home to see you!