ETA, Swedish Night, and the Bad Luck Girl

Hello again blog, and blog reading people. I have no internet at my apartment and haven´t for a little while now which has made blogging (something relatively low on my list of priorities) difficult to accomplish. I´m making the attempt today from an internet room near my house. It´s like a euro an hour to use this facility, but I´m here everyday now because I have to get online to remain in contact with certain job possibilities and to keep in touch with people. Also, I have to say that to the people who wished to see more pictures on this blog that that will most likely be an impossibility. First of all, I won´t be uploading pictures anywhere anytime soon from an internet room, and secondly my internet connection was so bad at the apartment that it took me hours just to write in the blog before. Plus, I uploaded my pictures to Facebook, which took me two days to accomplish, and the people who do read this also have access to my pictures on Facebook, so no one is missing anything by me not spending a lot of energy and frustration trying to upload pictures to the blog.

Phew, so plenty has been happening around here I just thought I would mention three things that have stood out over the past couple of weeks. First, ETA, our local terrorist organization. Maybe you´ve heard of ém. They come from the Basque region of Spain in the north and represent a small percentage of the people there that want independence from Spain. They´ve been attacking areas in the country for the past 20 years with the occasional car bomb, that sort of thing. A little over a week ago, my roommate Freddy awoke me, freaking out, and telling me that Madrid was under attack by Al Queda. I looked at him puzzled, still groggy, he then told me to call Mildred and make sure she was safe (because it was about the time in the morning that she would be on the train to work and I had no idea what was happening). I called her and there was no answer, Freddy looked at me like it was the end of the world. One thing about Freddy, he´s a very emotional guy, and quick to respond with his emotions. Me not so much, I went to the TV and watched a little Spanish CNN. It didn´t take me long to discover that the entire city was not under attack but that ETA had blown up a van in the northern part of the city, nowhere near Mildred. The television also alerted that someone had even called in the bomb an hour and a half before the explosion and everyone was evacuated, and no one was hurt. Only a few cars were destroyed and some windows in a nearby building. Thanks ETA. Mildred was fine.

Almost two weekends ago now Mildred and I attended ¨Swedish Night¨. Mildred´s friend Asa is from Sweden and she invited us to her place in northern Madrid, along with a few others, to experience a Swedish movie and some Swedish candies. I had been warned about the candies that I would not like them, but surprisingly I did not find them all that revolting. They were mostly a dark licorice, but covered in salt. The first chunk in my mouth was a bit strange, but as I kept cramming more in there I found the candies to be pretty nice. Still, give me chocolate any day of the week. We ended up watching a really good vampire movie that was unlike any other movie I can think of, it´s called ¨Let the right one in¨or Låt den rätte komma in¨ in Swedish. At Swedish night was one friend, her name is Melissa, and from talking with her a few times it would seem I have met the person who has the most bad luck of anyone.

I met Melissa first at Mildred´s birthday party, but we did not talk for long, I´m sure if I would have I´d have discovered something bad that had recently happened to her. Because it seriously seems to be a daily occurence with her. My second time meeting her she had just escaped mutilation by metro car. She was not looking and her leg slipped in the gap between the platform and the metro and she was stuck. The doors began to close on her and the Spanish people on board were watching what might happen with dulled interest. She managed to free herself before the metro left the station and avoided mutilation, but she had still bashed her knee pretty well. I´m reminding you that I´m just giving you a sampling of Melissa´s hardships and that I would be sitting here for hours if I were to give you a full report of this girl´s difficulties. I believe she has been robbed five times now. She recently found out that she has to have two teeth removed and that it would cost her over a thousand euros. Over the past week she´s had a root canal and multiple times where she´s gone in to get work done but the dentist´s office seems to have screwed up her appointments. Also she paid them the money, but then a few days later received complete dental coverage from her school. She´s told me a number of mind numbing tales about all the hoops the Spanish government has had her jump through (although that seems to be more of a Spanish government thing and not a Melissa thing). And just today I received a long email from her about a computer problem she is having. I´m leaving so much out...so much...but this is just a taste. I´m sure Mildred will have to add a few things about Melissa and her bad luck.

Other than this, the economic crisis is hitting Spain pretty hard and at the interviews I´ve been to that always seems to come up. I´m still teaching private lessons though, and earning something.