Moving and Merriment

I'm finally very, very pleased to announce that I have moved! Friday Karim saved my life by driving over to my old apartment and helping me load all my stuff up and then unload it into the new house. When we carried all my things in, he paused and read one of the many walls that are covered with multicolored cut out letters and told me, "This is a hippy house," with a playful teasing voice. I just laughed, because only a week or so ago he also told me he is slowly realizing I am quite the hippy myself. (This was in conjunction with a conversation about why we Americans insist on using our nerdy reusable water bottles.)

Anyway, the first day I got all unpacked and rearranged the furniture and Gypsy hid in the closet and sniffed around the corners of the room. That night I discovered that despite wearing a thick pair of leggings, a pair of sweat pants, a T-shirt, a sweater and a sweatshirt, I still kept waking up shivering under my flannel sheets and comforter. So Saturday Sravani and I went to Carrefour Planet, this huge Walmart type place that made me feel weird and claustrophobic-- it's been ages since I've been in such a huge supermarket!-- and I bought another comforter (with feathers!) and a little heater. I'm still wearing a billion layers to bed, but it's much better now. Check out my new room! It's much bigger.

My house consists of two Spanish guys and a woman from Hong Kong, an orange cat named Gato and a little corgi-type dog whose name I can't quite figure out, but whom I've decided to call Cristo. His real name sounds a lot like that. There's also a stripey cat that comes over to hang out with Gato a lot. I think s/he needs a name, so let me know if you have any ideas.

Gato and neighbor cat having a wild rumpus.

So far Gypsy has gotten pretty used to our room, but is not so sure about his new animal companions. Him and Gato have been hissing at each other and making weird cat growls, but mostly have just stared each other down a lot. Gypsy also hissed at Cristo at first but as we speak, the pup is sleeping in our room and Gypsy has fallen asleep trying to look vigilant.

On Saturday, my housemate David had his girlfriend's sister and her family over to have dinner and watch the futbol game (Barca vs. Madrid). They had these two absolutely adorable little girls, and I ended up hanging out with them for a while. Everyone was so nice and the seven year old girl was really eager to show off her English to me (knees! eyes! may I please go to the bathroom!). They were also absolutely obsessed with the animals. I kept Gypsy up in my room to avoid child-trauma but I let them come say hi to him briefly. They even fed my face which was super nice and super delicious. Later I crept into the kitchen and tried to quietly wash dishes but David still came and yelled at me. Things have changed, things have definitely changed.

Miriam and Gato. BFFL.

Yesterday, Sydney and Michelle came over and we had our first dinner in the new house! This proved a little tricky because although my kitchen is awesome and spacious, it is lacking in the actual dish arena. Like... we literally don't have bowls. Or mugs. But dinner turned out great and we shared with Borja, my housemate, and all hung out and bonded and it was jolly.

 A reenactment of the knife-wielding hug that Syd and I shared when I discovered that she's going to be around for the holidays (and therefore for my birthday!)

 

We had rice with eggplant, red and green pepper, green beans, zucchini, onions and garlic slathered with sriracha and chilli sauce, with a side of roasted garlic potatoes. We kinda also almost killed Borja with spiciness (Spaniards don't really do spicy) but he powered through thanks to wine, water and crackers.

This morning I ate rice and veggie leftovers with fried eggs and it turned out to be absolutely gorgeous so I went up to the terrace to eat.

Check out this gorgeous view!

And I made tea....

Yeah. We have a serious mug/glass/cup of any sort shortage. Hopefully today I will find the time to buy some real cups but other than that I'm stooooked! I'll try and put up a photo of my basement sometime soon, it's literally the ultimate chill spot: little wooden bar area, bar stools and a tall table, cushy chair and couch. Can't wait to get my fiesta on here!!