Jan. 13th - Jan 20th

I am currently sitting at Chamartin train station waiting to catch the connecting train t get out to Marc’s house, so I thought, what better way to spend my time than to write a new post for everyone to enjoy. Well, I do not know about that last part seeing that it was a boring week, but I will give it my best shot…where did I leave off, I think it was just after my marketing exam.

I think the test ran pretty well, by no means do I think I got 100%, but I think I did well enough to pass. That exam was on the 13th, and then I had another one on the 15th. On the 15th, I had the exam for my first year class. Being that it was a 9:00 a.m. test and it takes 2 hours by public transport to get to campus from Marc’s house, it was an early morning. This test was written in English…well kind of…it was written in such broken English that I had troubles understanding some of the questions. There were words that I had never seen before such as, Indebtfuledness. Correct me if I am wrong but I had never heard of this word, and no, that is not a spelling mistake on my end while writing this! I made it through the test, and got the grade back this weekend. I ended up getting a 6.5 of 10 in the class when I just needed a 5.5…this means that it transfers to ASU as an A!

Friday night, the same night of the exam we ended up going out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant with Marc’s whole family and then Marc and I went and met up with the usual suspects for a night out (Ismael, Javier, and Alvaro). We had a great time as usual. The next day we laid low, took a long nap in the afternoon and then again went out to dinner because it was Ian, Marc’s brothers, last night in town before going back to ASU…funny thing is I am actually going to be graduating with Ian next year, he also studies Finance.

Sunday was another day to lay low, I tried to get some studying in but it was to no avail. Woke up late and was pretty bad about getting the day going; It is good to rest up though right! That is what I kept telling myself at least. We had lunch as a family, and then watched the movie The Lord of War. Apart from that I kept on looking for apartments online but have not had much luck as of yet…that and I am indecisive about where I want to live; either in Getafe (the suburb where my school is) or in the city center. Every day I seem to go back and forth between the two, we’ll see where I end up. Monday was more of the same, stayed at Marc’s till about 3 looking for apartment’s and then went and looked at a few different neighborhoods. Unfortunately I didn’t find anything that I was too thrilled about so the search goes on.

Today, Tuesday I went to school early and tried to get some studying done for my exam that I have on Thursday, but ended up spending a lot of time running into people in the library, and then finally got some studying done with my friend Miguel Castelo-Branco from Portugal (another one of those times where I put the name in so I will remember it 20 years down the line, and everyone that is reading is thinking, could you make this any longer…well that just happened, you even read this whole explanation of me justifying writing the whole name for no good reason.)

Alright, well that is it for now folks. Because of all the exams life is pretty much dead here…I think these people take this whole exam period of a month a little too seriously, that igh also be because I need to get above a 5.5 to get A’s and they need to get a good score for a good overall average, but man loosen up a little. Ok really that is it.

Much Love as Always,

Phil

P.s. Just an absolute last thought, what a tragedy in Haiti this past week, shows how lucky we are to be healthy and happy…I am thankful to not have been affected by it, but am thinking of those that were, and wish all in Haiti a quick and safe recovery.