Monday. Lazy morning - finally got up to eat, then took a shower to try and get the rest of the sea salt and sand off of my body. Went to pay the 15 Euro for my visado (VISA) at the bank this morning, but it needs to be paid by 10:30, and I missed the time window. So I need to make sure to get there tomorrow morning! Alex and I both went, because she had things to do also, but the line I was in (that ended up telling me I had to come back) was so long she didn't want to wait. But I held the entire conversation with the guy in Spanish! Woot! *Side note: I don't think I have mentioned the creepy guy yet. There is this... older, portly gentleman... who we don't think is all there, but he hangs out in the Plaza Nueva, where we always meet and hang out. The first incident we had with him was the first day the big group met at Correos for the tour - he reached out and grabbed Hannah's arm, and tried to lead her away. Another time he grabbed Alyssa. Ethan and Amelia saw him playing with himself in between those events also. One time he came up to Amelia and I when we were waiting for the guys, but she told him to go away. Every time we go through that plaza, we always see him! We are always half afraid he will start to recognize us. So back to the bank... Just after Alex left, he came into the entryway, stood there for a moment, kinda looked around, then trooped back out. Mentally, I was like 'Ahh, creepy guy is HERE TOO!'

Went to the Correos and bought stamps and envelopes. Also handled in Spanish, BY MYSELF - go me! Ended up back at API from there, to print off the form for Casey back home. Also printed off an excel document of my upcoming classes (some things never change... you know what I told Alex I was most disappointed that I couldn't bring? My filing cabinet. For sure. She just laughed at me...). API closed for lunch, so I went home (met Alex along the way - she had been at API also but left before me). Maria-Carmen texted Alex to say she wouldn't be home for lunch, so we heated up the soup (white beans I can't name, potato, carrot, some green things, lots of broth...) she had left on the counter for us, and ate that with some bread and fruit. We just got more fruit, so I had an apple! :)

We also unloaded the dishwasher for her. I have been trying to get my hands on that dishwasher since we got here, and she keeps shooing me out of the kitchen. So we unloaded it, then loaded it with dirty dishes. I started looking up places to go this next weekend - we have a long weekend because of a holiday on Monday (a puenta is a weekend where we have an extra day or two off). I called Amelia to try and coordinate going to Cadiz (since I know Erin Hunter there, and Amelia lived there when she lived in Spain before, so she wants to visit her old host family). Amelia was still sick from the day before however, just really bad dehydration, so I started looking everything up - bus tickets, hostels, became a registered member of couch surfing, etc... tomorrow morning, after paying our visado bills, we are going to meet at API to finalize and purchase things. We aren't sure if anyone else is coming (it's really expensive, but we both have strong reasons for going), or how exactly it will pan out, but we'll see. It needs to get done ASAP or there won't be any more room on the bus (54 Euro round trip though... ugh!!).

Back home for dinner (again with Alex) of fried cordon bleu with tomato halves and cold ham. Ugh, I do NOT like tomatoes. I had to cut them up and eat every bite of my yummy fried stuff with tomato, just to get it down. :( We also had soup with birdseed (hehe) and bread, with abaricoque (apricot) yogurt. Alex bought this 'Street Spanish' book with phrases from countries all over the world. She was sharing them with our host mom and me; some of them she had never heard of, and for some of them she just laughed when Alex read them. It was a pretty funny evening, over all. Maria-Carmen liked to give examples of everything that came up. ;) Apparently, some of her old hosted students (chicos, of course) taught her the phrase 'You like my pooper/ass' in English, and she didn't know what it meant until her son Fernando was like 'No no, don't say that, it's bad!' Hehe. She thought it was funny. She is really awesome. :D

There were hesitant plans for going out tonight to a trivia game, but there wasn't enough room for the team that wanted to play, so everybody stayed home instead. Amelia and I chatted through the computer, so I am hopeful about things getting planned tomorrow. I also told Erin our plans, and she said she would love to take us around or hang out on the beach. :) I'm excited!