My hostel: three floors up from the Starbucks
There really isn't too much going on in my life at the moment. I think I am starting to appreciate the art of doing nothing. This is mostly because the dollar/euro rate has been severely depressing, but also because I don't feel all that much in a rush to explore because I know I have the whole year.
Every morning at 11am we are kicked out of the hostel until 2pm so that Olga (the owner) and her boyfriend (the Polish guy) can clean and do laundry. I am usually the last one out, and usually late at that. But Ronnie, the guy who works nights, doesn't care. He is from Paraguay and taught me how to make yerba maté paraguay-style. First you cook it on a fry pan with sugar until it looks burnt, then you pour that into almost-boiling water, then strain it and serve it with milk and more sugar. It smelled like burnt coffee but actually tasted pretty good.
Tonight is my last night at the hostel. I feel kind of weird leaving it since it has become my home in a way. It has been a week and a half but has felt like 4. I find myself mentioning people in the hostel who stayed here awhile ago and saying things like "wow, I haven't seen that Belgian guy in about three weeks" then realizing that was a fairly stupid comment. But I guess that goes to illustrate how time is fairly irrelevant here, especially when you have nothing to do.
I have also taken to cooking for the United World Hostel staff at various times which has been well received. The other day I FINALLY found corn tortillas at this "tienda latina" so I made tortillas, beans, onions, cilantro, tomato, and avocado. Eliseo came in (he works the later evening shift) and at first told me he wasn't hungry (I think he questioned if I could really cook Mexican style food) and then came back twenty minutes later and ate a taco. When asked if he wanted another one, he said "of course".
As well as cooking I have taken to stocking toilet paper when it is out, and buzzing people in when the front desk is empty. In return I got to do my laundry for free (saved 14euro!) and I am going to leave a bag of food in the kitchen while I am in Cádiz to pick up for later. I have been told twice "Don't tell Olga though, she'll get pissed". All in all it has been a good run at the United World International Hostel (that name is just "pesado") and it is off to start a new chapter in my Madrid experience.
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