Uy uy uy uy uy!!

Hello all! Once again I find myself apologizing for being so infrequent with my postings, but what the say is true, "If you think New York is the city that never sleeps, you've never been to Madrid." I have been going non-stop since I last wrote!

So first off, HALLOWEEN was a BIG success in school here. Everyone got dressed up from the teachers to the 3 year old kids. It was pretty interesting since the concept of Halloween here, albeit a Anglican holiday, has become quite the phenomenon here. What is lacking though is the ability to grasp the idea that Halloween doesnt have to be all about scary costumes. In Spain the more terrifying costume you have the better, in reality its almost a truer interpretation of the roots of the holiday than it is in the states. There are no 11 year old girls walking around in belly-dancer costumes or french maid outfits instead you get the Queen of the Vampires (with blood!) or the Princess Demon, all of which were pretty damn scary! The boys usually stick to ghosts/dead things/masks and anything else they can find that will scary the pants off the girls. Upstairs on the 3rd floor we made a Haunted House. It was pitch black, with scary music, spaghetti brains, eyeball grapes etc. The kids loved it! Some weren't that scared and would pass by me and shout out 'I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!' hahah it was funny. Some of the kids though were scared shitless (one kid peed his pants and another girl in 6th grade cried) so I would say all in all it was a success! As one of the other teachers, Alicia, said, 'This is the only time of the year we have to get back at them for all the shit they put us through the other 270 days'. How true that was.

Aside from the festivities in school, I was able to spend my All Hallows Eve in the campo with my friends Carlos and Amanda! AVENTURA! Let me explain.....So my dear pivón Carlos knows another Carlos who has a few 'houses' throughout Spain. Said Carlos happens to have a place in Alcocér, a pueblo about 1.5 hours from Madrid. So Carlos (DC) and Amanda and I set off on our merry way to find this town. About 2.5 hours later we arrived in the town to be greeted by 1 street, a church, a pharmacy (that was someones house) and 1 bar. Now I've been to some pretty small places before but BEJEEESUS there was NOTHING in this town, they didnt even have an ATM. Upon arrival we sit down at the bar to have a few beers and wait for the rest of the group to arrive. About 1.5 hours later eveyrone arrives and we proceed to the house. Ok first of all, this was not a house it was a CASTLE (kinda, close enough really). It has about 10 bedrooms, 4 salons, 2 kitchens, a basement, 2 patios and much more. So needless to say Amanda and I were a little flabbergasted. Although this sounds SUPER cool (which it was) it also should be noted that this house is not lived in, the caretaker died in it, and since there were no streetlights in the pueblo it was pitch black. Talk about the perfect place to scare someone shitless! And yes, Amanda got me good, took about 15 years off my life and also made me cry. (I WILL get you back woman, you just wait). We spent the night in the castle and went for a hike the next morning, the campo was beautiful (we were in Castilla y La Mancha) and the air fresh.

On Saturday night, Amanda and I went out with Leti and Ricky, danced our butts off til about 6am and then dragged ourselves home. On Sunday we went to my friend Fanderson's house to watch the Formula 1 champion race. Fanderson is Brazilian and so he and all his Brazilian friends were quite stirred up over the standing between Massa (BR) and Hamilton (ENG). In the end, Massa lost, Amanda and I pretended we knew what was going on and ate alot of delicious homemade lasagna.

This week should prove to be busy as always, and hopefully this weekend I will either be going to Segovia or to Toledo depending on what my finances look like! I hope you are all doing well and wanted to thank everyone who voted yesterday! No matter who you voted for the only thing that matters is that BUSH WONT BE PRESIDENT FOR MUCH LONGER. HALLELUJAH!!
Looking forward to a new chapter in our country under President Barack Obama (feels great to type that!) and to regaining our image as intelligent people here in Europe! Its a new era people, get excited!

Much love as always,
LuLu