June 8th - June 15th

Another week has blown on bye, and before nothing the family will be here for the summer. On Tuesday last week, it was another morning of studying. I had been waking up at 7a.m. when David was getting up to go to school and studying for a few hours in the morning before Maria was up to get ready and the day got rolling. It seemed to be the most efficient way to get some reading done and I was actually pretty productive. We did not end up doing to much on Tuesday as the weather was bad. It shouldn't be raining this time of year but sure enough it was. I was going to meet up with Domingos and Francisco for a drink but we were all busy studying so we put it off for another night.

Wednesday was another early morning study session before packing all of my stuff up to head back to Madrid. Before leaving I stopped by Avo's house to say bye to her and Felicia. They both seem to be doing well. The flight went really smoothly and I was in Madrid by the early afternoon. Stopped by Rita's house to pick up the rest of my deposit from my apartment and then headed home to Marc's house.

Thursday afternoon I met up with Bruno from my Financial Systems class to have a study session before the exam on Friday. It went pretty well, we went over all of the material and ended up being done quite a bit earlier than expected. I ended up heading home and hanging out with Ian, Javier and gina for a while because Marc was still at work and then meeting up with friends in Madrid for dinner. I was going to go out with them, but decided that maybe it would be a good idea to sleep and study a little bit before my exam!

Friday's exam was not until the late afternoon, 5:00p.m. I arrived at the university early and ended up running into a couple of friends from last semester that had been studying abroad in Canada. I had a coffee with Ángela, Claudia, Laura, and friends and then buckled down for a little bit of prep before going into the exam. The exam went pretty well, as in I am 95% sure I passed it. At one point the Spanish was not flowing for me so I asked my teacher, Marta, if I could respond in Spanglish and she said that that would be fine! She was a great teacher and really helpful to me this semester. After the exam I talked with Andrew for a little bit before he headed off to John's Graduation weekend with Mom and Dad; and then went into Madrid for another review session with my buddy Jon from World Economics. We got a couple hours of studying in and then I caught up with Ian and Marc who were watching a movie downtown and we all headed home together.

After a few more hours of cramming, it was a quick nap until 6:00a.m. and then it was off to the test. I had to leave the house by 6:45 to catch the right trains in order to make it to my university with a little bit of time to spare for the 9:00a.m. exam. Right before the test I was going over some last minute questions with a couple of guys from my class, and sure enough the material I was catching up on showed up on the exam! I did pretty well on this exam, and found out yesterday, Monday that I passed with a 6.5. I am really excited about that because it was the class I was most nervous about passing. I got home around 12:00 Saturday and took a nap for a few hours until lunch was ready! Javier made us a mean pasta casserole for lunch. Marc and I hung out around the house for most the afternoon and then that night we met up with Ismael, Alvaro and Joaquin for dinner. It was good to see the guys because they have all been stuck in their rooms studying for the last month and they finally snuck out for a bite to eat. After dinner Marc and I were debating weather to stay in or go out for a beer in Madrid with Ángela and Claudia. We finally decided to go out for a couple of hours, and sure enough it turned into the whole night! We all went to Joy and danced the night away with the girls and also Laura, and a couple others that I met for the first time that night. It ended up being a heck of a good time for a night when we almost didn't go out! Whoops, almost forgot...John graduated on Saturday and I got to talk to him briefly during his graduation party. It sounded like he was having a good time and it was hard to have had to have missed it, but man am I proud of him!

Sunday was a slow day to catch up on sleep and rest the brain. As a matter of fact I am having a hard time remembering what we did. That is right, we did not do anything until the early evening when we went to Pitu's house to watch Germany play Australia in the World cup; which reminds me on Saturday I watched the U.S. tie with England for their opening match. The Germany vs. Australia game was not nearly as interesting but it was fun to hang with Marc and Pitu. For dinner we went to a local bar and grabbed some bocadillos and then called it a night.

Monday was supposed to be another day to study for my exams on Wednesday and Thursday but I ended up resting and talking to the family on Skype.It was really cool because lots of people were at the house and I got to see them all: Uncle Bill, Aunty Sheryl, Aunt Margie, Uncle Petar, Elizabeth, Leslie (who also graduated, Congrats), Grandpops, Iris, and maybe one or two more of Leslie's family friends from Santa Cruz that I am forgetting. Other than that I hung out with Marc and Ian which is always a mellow and good time.

Well, that brings us to today Tuesday and it is time to buckle down and study a bit before the exam tomorrow. Tonight I am meeting up with Rita, Carlos, Mimi, Ana, Marc, Ian, and maybe a few other friends to go have Indian food, and then it is two more exams before I am back in Lisbon to pick Dad up from the airport! It has been a long 10 months and I am dying to see the family!

Well, I hope this finds everyone doing well back home, and I hope that you are beginning to enjoy your summers.

Much Love Always,

Phil