Un burro por tu casa

Haha, ok, so literally, "un burro por tu casa" means "A donkey through your house," but apparently it's a somewhat typical response to the question "¿Qué pasa?" (what's up?). It doesn't really mean anything, it's just like when someone says, "Guess what!" and you say "chicken butt," and I think it's funny. Anyway, so that's what I learned this week.

In other news, I'm mostly settled into my new apartment. I still need a few things, shelves for my bathroom and bookshelves for my room, plus maybe some posters or decorations, but today is Sunday so nothing is open. (It's not like Texas where it's a going-to-church issue, it's just that nothing is open because no one feels like working.) Anyway, once I get everything set up I'll take some pictures and put them up. Plus it's slightly cloudy today (tragic!), so I'll wait for better lighting :) But I'm really happy about this place. I have two roommates, one from Portugal and one who I'm pretty sure is from somewhere within Catalunya (maybe Barcelona?). The latter hasn't quite moved in yet, but today is her birthday so she had a party here last night and I met some of her friends. They both seem super nice. On Wednesday, when I moved all of my stuff in, the one from Portugal was around also, and while I was unpacking my stuff she came by my room and offered to make me some dinner! Yeah, it was kind of awesome. I mean, it was nothing fancy, right, but it was more the meaning behind the gesture... so yeah I think this is going to be a great arrangement. Plus, as of Friday, we have internet at home, so I can finally go online on the weekends! Not that I have a lack of internet access normally, or at work or anything, but I use AIM and Skype to talk to people, and the computer room at the old place tended to be closed at all of the times that I would try to go online. So this is very good.

Anyway, I don't know what else to say. Work is progressing. I had my first face-to-face meeting with my boss last Monday, and we worked out a plan, along with the third member of our group. It's a fairly aggressive schedule, but I definitely prefer it to being idle and bored, and I don't think it's out of the bounds of what I can accomplish during 40-hour work weeks (give or take a few long days here and there).

So basically, I'm pretty content with my life. Content is probably the understatement of the century. I actually feel like I'm pretty darned blessed. I mean, I'm not sure what I did to deserve this; maybe I'm working on credit, and somewhere down the line I'm supposed to save the world. But all of this--the opportunity to travel, the people I've been meeting, the luck I've had with finding a nice place to live--it's just kind of amazing. Even when I'm doing nothing, I just feel glad to be here, excited when I make it through a conversation in Spanish, amazed that I'm able to get so much done on my own. That's not to say I don't miss people at home, because I do miss you guys, but they're not mutually exclusive feelings, I guess. But anyway, I'll stop before I get too sentimental. :)

Oh, one last thing. MIT TRACK AND FIELD KICKED SOME MAJOR BUTT THIS WEEKEND!! Third place at the New England D3 Indoor Championships, which is the highest indoor finish ever! Included in that was a slew of amazing top 3 individual finishes, including a sizzling 2:17.32 by Ms. Bradshaw in the 800m as well as a hott 2:59.03 by Adrienne in the 1000m, both of which are new school records, to boot. Other school records included Amy in the 55h (8.26, NCAA auto qualifier) and Leanne in the 600m (1:40.01). SUPERSTARS. Ok, that's all. Yes, yes, I'm still obsessed with track. Anyone within hugging distance of anyone on the team should pass one one from me.