Yulia!

Fun day today!
1) Actually today didn't start out great... I woke up sleepy as always and Carmen walked up to me with her arms outstretched. I thought she wanted to give me a hug so I opened my arms, only to have her WHACK me in the stomach. Spanish children are a lot more aggressive in their play, but I really didn't like being hit in the morning...
2) We dropped them off and then dropped me off. Today I walked to kaja's while listening to my ipod which made it more fun, because although it is a beautiful walk, it gets boring the fourth time. At Kaja's we quickly ate breakfast before heading off for the day's adventures! The goal was Madrid and we planned to go via the metro station a few minutes away from Kaja's house. We biked to the metro station, my bike about three feet to small for me and Kaja's with two extremely flat tires and hopped on! We really have become masters of Metros! We had beed planning on purchasing a "youth abono" which is a monthly metro pass... you pay like 30 euros or something and then can use it to ride free on busses, trains, trolleys, maybe even horses i dunno! But we found out that it takes 10 days to arrive, so getting it for this month would not be worth it. So we continued on to Madrid and went shopping!! We went to H&M and tried on half the things in the store. Kaja and I each bought a shirt and skirt and then we got these adorable matching polka dot dresses, hers is yellow with white dots and mine is black with pink dots. We are planning to wear them in Seville together and look soooo cute and adorable!
3) We then went into a few other shops, one really cool European store called "Mango" with really cool clothing (Maica actually told me later today that she has a 40% discount card that she will give to me to use next time I go!!) and some other stops before it was already time to go home to pick up our kids from school!! Kaja and I had so much fun, we couldn't stop laughing on the metros and people were giving us looks of annoyance but we didn't care!
4) I got on an early bus again, but this time it was sunny so when I arrived at the designated pick up point I pulled out my ipod and a friendship bracelet I am currently working on and sat in the grass in the sunshine! The abuelos picked me up at 4:45 and we went to the school. This time the Abuelo let me go get Carmen but he got Rafa. Carmen promptly started whailing on me with her fists again (I so don't get it) and laughing like a maniac and in the car Rafa joined in. I stopped them and said very clearly that I dont like pain, shocker, and the abuela actually helped me in getting them to stop!! They have not abused me since! At the abuela's house first we watched some spanish children's tv shows including Arthur!! It was one I had never seen before and it was about the Odyssey! I love watching spanish children's shows because they are so easy to understand and lots of fun! Then I played dominoes with Carmen until Maica picked us up.
5) No one ever tells me what the plan of the afternoon is, I just get in the car and it's always a surprise where we end up. Today we ended up at Burger King! One of Maica's friends, Sara, was there with her adorable adorable son. it was Sara's birthday and so I guess they wanted to get together. It was actually really fun because a) I got a delicious American cheeseburger b) I successfully got Carmen to eat her dinner without Maica's help, c) Carmen, Rafa Jr, the other boy and I played on the little indoor play structure at Burger King so Maica and Sara could have some chatting time and it was really fun! They were being so sweet and cute and kept saying, "Yulia mira!" (Julia look) d) I really think that I have already helped them learn so much english, now when I say some things I can tell they totally understand! Sometimes they even answer me in english, like "yes" or "dog" or "Thank you" or "goodbye see you later!" I feel so accomplished!
6) The ride home was really fun too because no one fought! The kids favorite song of mine is the bumble bee song and I sang it over an over again. By the end of the ride they were singing along too and doing the hand motions! We got home with everyone happy and full of delicious friend American food.
7) Rafa Sr was leaving that night to go to a work thing over night, which I must say also eased the energy in the house because he can be pretty strict but with only Maica there everyone was relaxed, plus the kids were sleeping in Maica's bed. We hung around the kitchen for a while, then I showed Carmen and Rafa "Photobooth" on my computer. They had so much fun taking funny pictures on my computer, I'll see if I can figure out how to add one to this post!
8) Now I'm all ready to go to bed, but first I need to write five mini essays to apply to Umass's honor's college! I'm not sure that I want to join, because I have heard that a lot of people don't like it, but I figure I might as well apply! The application is due Monday, but since I am going to Seville all weekend, I won't have time time!
9) Tomorrow Kaja and I are going to Seville!! Maica lent me her camera for the weekend so I can take lots of photos! I'll be sure to show everyone. However, this weekend trip means there wont be another juliablah post until either Monday or Sunday!! Sorry everyone :)
P.s. I am getting so good at understanding Spanish!! It's not even that difficult to understand! But speaking is another story haha... I have trouble with my past tense verbs.
p.p.s. KAJA's QUOTE OF THE DAY!!: i am too exhausted from dealing with two scoundrels to think of a quote
p.p.p.s. I Miss everyone!!!!!


First picture is of me, carmen and rafa, second is just me and Carmen!
P.p.p.p.s. They don't really say Hulia or even Julia, they say Yulia... I think it's because they try to pronounce the J and it turns out like a y! (Dad this doesn't mean I'm going to become an incompetent car saleswoman.)