¿Qué pasa con el tiempo?

This city can't make up its mind. Two days ago it was warm and sunny. Today a wind storm arrived and it has been pouring down rain for the last few hours. Tomorrow it is supposed to be really cold (14 degrees celsius) and this weekend it is supposed to be sunny and hot...

Yesterday Christopher (the gitano boy who has major behavior issues and never has a book) completed an activity in his workbook without ANY help. None of the other kids had done it, and he said he didn't do it at home. We were flabbergasted. There is hope in this world.

The other day I bought cromos, which are soccer trading cards that you stick into a big magazine that has each team in La Liga, the Spanish soccer league. I had a duplicate card, so I brought it to school to trade with Alejandro (the boy who plays soccer games on his desk with clay). I brought the card over to him and he at first started yelling because he thought I took his card. Ramón (the teacher I assist) had to explain to him in Spanish that it was my card. I am the only girl in the whole school who trades cromos.

Things that are pretty cool about Madrid:

1. The Subway system. It is amazing. I am so spoiled now. If I arrive at the platform and I see that the wait is over 3 minutes I get impatient. If a train somehow breaks down, it just magically backs up (where does it go?) and a new one comes in 5 minutes. In Seattle, the buses run every half hour if you are lucky and if one breaks down, you are screwed.
2. Toilets never clog here. I don't understand it, it is magic.
3. People don't need sleep to function. The streets are busier at midnight on a Wednesday than on Sunday afternoon. For some reason people can go to sleep at 1 am and still wake up, go to work and function as though they slept for 10 hours.
4. Although people rush around a lot more here than in Andalucía, things are way more laid back than in the States. The other day I was complaining to Ramón after lunch that I ate too much. He told me to skip the first 15 minutes of class and go get a tea at the bar across the street. I declined, my guilty American work ethic unable to allow me to skip work.

Madrid Forecast