Mi Vida Española

Ah, my Spanish life. It seems like it changes a bit every day, but always for the better.

As I had mentioned before, Kayla and I got back to Madrid and vacation time is officially over. Kind of.

School hasn't yet started, so we've had some time to go out a bit more, do a bit more sightseeing, etc. So the stressful part hasn't quite kicked in yet. Aaaand more importantly, our little international apartment family is finally complete! Woo hoo!

Let me give you a little rundown of my roommates for the coming year:

• Kayla - a fellow OU Sooner who is also in my same program with the Universidad de Alcalá. She's been one of my very good friends for a long time and I'm not sure what I would do without her. I don't really know what else I can say about her that I haven't said already, but I do know that I'll probably become a Shakira expert by the end of the year because of her.
• Maite - our Spanish roommate. She's 24 (or 25, I don't really remember) and she's originally from Bilbao in the north of Spain, but she's lived in Madrid for several years now. She doesn't really know any English, which can be both good and bad. It definitely helps with practicing Spanish, but it also kind of creates a language barrier for any real, intimate conversation. In any case, she's very nice and a good person to have around.
• Gabriel - our 17 (almost 18) year old roommate originally from Nice, France. However, although his father is French, his mother is Spanish so he is of both nationalities and he speaks perfect Spanish. He also speaks great English and he loves speaking it with us. He loves America and even has an American flag hanging in his room. He's a pretty cool kid and I think we'll get along really well. He's starting his 5 year program in Madrid this year.
• Saila - the 24 year old roommate from Helsinki, Finland. Her name is pronounced SIGH-la. She's here for an exchange year to finish up her Masters and being from Scandinavia she speaks perfect English. Her Spanish is pretty good, about the same level that I'm at. She's tall, super platinum blonde, and reminds us of a Barbie doll. Pretty much your stereotypical Scandinavian girl. She's really cool though and a lot of fun to talk to and hang out with. She and Kayla are very similar in a lot of ways and they've already hit it off very well.

And here is a picture of all of us minus Maite from just a couple of nights ago. From left to right it's Gabriel, me, Kayla, and Saila. And Gabriel wanted to do like Kayla and I have done several times making the OU symbol, so we're holding up an M and U for Madrid University. haha

And technically we have a 6th bedroom open, but we're all kind of hoping that no one takes it. Right now there's a great environment in the flat and we don't really need anyone else. Also, right now one of our showers is out of commission, so we don't really want to have to share one shower between 6 people. haha (No worries, it's getting fixed soon. I don't live in the ghetto, I swear).

And also some good news: We're getting our own wireless internet tomorrow! Which is AWESOME! I'm sick of stealing crappy internet that only lets me look at gmail, youtube, and my blog. And that way I'll finally be able to use skype and see people. I can't wait!

So as you can see, life is good thus far. I was a little worried about how the roommate situation would work out, but I don't think I could have asked for a better set of people to live with. I'm even more excited to live here now.

And now it's time for a siesta. Man, Spanish life is rough....