Jan. 21st - Jan. 25th

Short week, only 5 days between posts. What does that mean...

a. Last week I was behind on posting, like most posts as of lately.
b. This week I am on top of my game and Posting on time.
c. All of the above

Answer: C

If you answered C, well done. It was another slowish week this week, but that does not mean that there were not a few nice highlights.

I spent the early part of last week studying and searching for apartments, the later of which still is not going so well. On Thursday, I had my final for Game Theory. This was not my favortie subject by any means. I do not know why, but some of these more abstract economic concepts just do not click very easily for me. Luckily, my good friend Miguel helped me with some last minute studying and I felt pretty good going into the test. Have you ever had one of those moments where someone explains something that you don't think you understand, and even though the explanation is real brief it just kind of clicks? That is how I would sum up my studying for Game Theory, I was kind of lost and then we had a little study session and I felt goo going into the test.

After the test, I relieved a call from Eric Gavin. Eric was here with Annaleise, his fiance, on a study abroad trip organized through USD. I left school and went to their hotel to meet up with them. It was great to catch up, I don't think I had seen Eric since senior year of high school or so, maybe once or twice afterward. We ended up going out for a late lunch and walk around the city. I took them to one of my favorite restaurants, Lateral, and we enjoyed some tapas and a nice bottle of wine. After lunch, I took them back to their hotel and we planned to go out later that night with them and some of their friends from the study abroad group. I went back to Marc's, cleaned up, and then went back to Madrid for a dinner with the guys. Ismael, Javier, Marc, Alvaro and I went to our favorite Indian restaurant and had a great meal before the other guys started their exams, kind of a last little get together before they started to cram. We ended up sticking around late, laughing and talking and by the time I left i was right on time for the 24:00 rendezvous in the hotel lobby.

I was just a few minutes early, and before I knew it a group of kids was starting to congregate in the hotel lobby. I overheard two of the girls say Eric's name, and I asked them if they knew where he was, all of the sudden they both said "...you must be Phil?!"  It was a little bit of a shock at first, but kind of funny that they all already knew my name, we started chatting and a great time had already begun! By the time everybody made it down we ended up being a group of about 12, 4 of us were guys, no too bad right! I felt a little bit like a tour guide walking in front of this big group of people, and making sure that we had not left anyone behind. We all went to Joy, the club that most students go to on Thursday nights, and ended up running into a ton of people from my school. Lots of the students had finished exams and were having one last wild night out on the town before going back to their respective homes. When we arrived the place was kind of dead, it does not usually start going off until about 2 or 3 a.m. but that did not keep us from hitting the dance floor right away. We got the party going that night! All the kids from USD ended up leaving around 3a.m. because some of them ad flights to catch, but I ended up sticking around with the other exchange students from Carlos III till the end of the night!

The next day, I met back up with Eric and Annaleise around 2p.m. for some lunch, and then we went to the Reina Sofia (modern Art Museum) to look at some of the works. Annaleise studied some of the pieces that are held their, such as Guernica by Piscasso, and wanted to see what it looked like in person. I had already been there a few different times, but what is one more right, especially because with your student card it is free! It was a nice afternoon and then they were on their way. they had an early flight to catch, and I was going to head back home to meet up with Marc ans Alvaro for dinner and a movie...don't laugh because we are three guys and we went to dinner and then the 00:15 movie together. We watched Sherlock Holmes, which I had already seen and ended up sleeping through because of the lack of sleep Thursday night, all the same it was good to be hanging out with the buddies.

Saturday was a mellow day. Marc and I hung round his house, had lunch with his folks at home and watched some movies. The weather was not that great, off and on rain, and the weekends always seem to be for catching up on rest. Saturday night we again met up with Alvaro and went to Madrid for some Mexican food, yes you did hear me correctly, Mexican food! The last experience that I had with Mexican here in Europe was not the best, so I was cautiously optimistic going into this one. Luckily, we had something that was a little more reminiscent to the Mexican we are accustomed to back home, but still a far reach from it.

After not having done any studying any weekend, Sunday was the day to buckle down and get my Monetary and Fiscal Macroeconomics studying out of the way. You guessed it, I had a test today Monday. Again, it was one of those times were you get stressed because you don't think you know anything, then you get together with a colleague, discuss it and BAMMMMM, you realize that going to class every time pays off, and you really do know it! I had the test this morning, and I think that it went really well, or as well as it could have gone. I am 95% sure that I passed the exam, and if I need a little help I am confident that the professor will help me out, especially being that the whole thing was in Spanish and I did not have the prerequisets to take the class done (yes mom, I discussed this with him at the beginning of the semester and he told me to stick with it).

Well, that is it for this past week...Four tests down and one to go on Saturday. This week is going to be another week of more apartment searching seeing as I am still sleeping on that one bench, under that one bridge, near that one park...ok so that is a lie; life is sweet at the Contijoch house, but really I have to get my new place soon.

I hope all is well at home, and wanted to send an extra special Hug and Kiss to Uncle Ralph and Aunt Sylvia; I am going to miss Bertha very much, but will always remember her for all of the wonderful times we had together at family gatherings.

Much Love, and until next time,

Phil