Felicitaciones!

PINK, because when a baby girl is born, this is usually the color assigned to the occasion. 

Thus, i was born on October 8, 1986...and my cute celebration was had yesterday with new friends, faces, and foods. eff, i know.

It was great, and I want to thank every dear individual for their efforted typings on my facebook page. Also, thanks for the phone call, Dad, my heart was warmed having your near voice near to my ear. 

Here's just a list of wonderful things that happened on my birthday:

* two of my classes of kids sang happy birthday to me in english with a cute spanish accent

*Ellie brought me a cute little cake with a candle and some other goodies

*3 of the teachers i work with invited me to marienda for a drink of café 

*amaaazing Thai dinner

*hilarious sprint marathon-->Trey and I went to the local police department to receive our NIEs to get our real residencia de permanencia for España, and the process included running to the bank, waiting for 30 minutes before the teller told us her machine was broken, running to another bank on the other side of town and getting our sheet stamped and payed for, running back to the police department (all within the 1 o'clock hour because EVERYTHING closes at 2PM here- i mean total lockdown)...as we were running back to the police department, we see the 2 Germans who were in there the first time we arrived, and they were slowly sauntering to the P.D. as we were making a sprint for it from across town. we quickly pass them up and they start screaming "NO PASS NO PASS!!" and begin running with us, racing us to the door of the P.D. 100 mtrs away. ALAS, the Americans prevail (see every Olympic games), and leave the Germans fighting for dignity in the dust. pobrecitos. we made it by 1:58PM with sweat rolling down the sides of our faces, to safely stamp our fingers and sign a piece of paper. done and done. 

Also, I want to mention that this has been a nerve-racking week at school. Things aren't "normal" yet by any means...i mean, what do i expect? but, the faculty and kids at my school are making me feel very welcome. however, any and ALL reigns of boss-hood have been handed over to me, the "english teacher", and i'm to prepare all of the lessons for next week. I have every level of class, from 1ESoA (12 year olds-8th graders) to 2Bachillerato4 (12th graders- up to 20 yrs old), so in my infinite wisdom of teaching and the experience i've gained from 22 loooong years of life, i will accurately and effectively teach everyone (including profesores/as) the English language. W00T!! hilarious.

But as deep-endish as this sounds, I'm super excited to get thrown into this culture. I just need some better anti-perspirant to atone for my daily sweat stains. oopss.

other monumental acontecimientos: I got my first-ever Spanish bank account set up today! I also applied for Internet in our apartment, which will probably take another 2 weeks to get installed. Im close to the end of Girlfriend in a Coma (its a creepy book so far, but i think it might scare me into action-check it out.). I'm getting a gym membership tomorrow. and tonight, we're all (the roomies and I) taking Spanish lessons!

exciting stuff. love you guys.