Friday was another crazily busy day. I’d planned to get in at least a bit of sleep at some point but I just didn’t have the time. My linguistics lecture had been moved to 9am, meaning yet another early start. I then had a few hours to reorganise my life before my lecture at 4 - which turned out to be fairly pointless anyway.
When I got back from class I called in at the flat to fetch Giorgos, and we went to Mercadona together to buy supplies for my party that evening. We came back laden with alcohol and nibbles, and then set about trying to get the place in an acceptable state to present to visitors. I did the kitchen whilst Giorgos dusted every available surface; I don’t think the flat has ever been so clean.
A couple of hours later, the flat was sparkling, we’d had our dinner and I was just doing the finishing touches to my hair when Fernando arrived. I still hadn’t done my nails or put all the food out, but luckily he was happy to help (with the food, not the nails - I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have done a very good job of those).
Not long afterwards the other guests started to arrive and soon our little flat was full of people, music and conversation. At one point I noticed that my friends were behaving slightly oddly but I’m quite used to odd behaviour so decided to leave them to it. When they dimmed the lights and came in with a massive chocolate bear cake, all was explained. Giorgos was following, bizarrely, with an incense stick, looking disappointed and confused. “I’d been saving this for ages!” he said, “I thought it was a sparkler, I was really excited!”
The cake, which was clearly meant for small children but was probably more exciting to me, had two giant ‘21’ candles on it (apparently the check-out lady had assumed it was meant to say ‘12’ instead). And not only did I get another cake and another rendition of Happy Birthday, but I got yet another present too - one which had been deemed ‘inappropriate’ to be opened in front of the family...
Without going into too much detail, we left at around 1.30 and ended up at Badulake. Suffice it to say, much fun was had by all and we went home in the early hours of the morning. Reader, you may notice that my blog entries are becoming more and more abridged; please don’t question this, it’s for your own good.
The next morning we woke up to a scene of devastation in my flat reminiscent of some kind of natural disaster. Thankfully, the guys were astonishingly helpful; I think Giorgos has some kind of penchant for cleaning. I should maybe mention that Giorgos is one of those lovable characters with lots of little quirks. To name the most recent example: we were just chatting when he suddenly asked me to have a look at his toe, which has a lump on it he’s been slightly concerned about for around a month. Bearing in mind I have no medical experience, whereas he is a medic and has been having practicals in a hospital for the past two months, this question took me slightly by surprise. I said, “Have you tried asking at the pharmacy?” “Hmm, good idea,” he agreed pensively. There is, in fact, usually a “George of the day”, a funny one-liner he’s come out with, intentionally or inadvertently, that’s made me giggle; at any rate, his foibles are endearing and definitely keep me amused.
Anyway, between the three of us (Giorgos, Fernando and me), we got the flat cleaned up in no time and with minimal stress. The trauma came around an hour later with a Facebook message from Annalisa saying she had lost her keys, iPod and camera and had no idea what to do. After several phone conversations with Alicia, who is always the most level-headed one in these situations, we agreed to meet at Alicia’s house and make a plan of action.
Poor Annalisa just seems to attract bad luck. All her flatmates had gone home for the weekend, as usual, meaning that unless she found her keys, she would have no way of getting into the flat until the following evening. I suggested sending her out onto the street with one of those signs like the homeless people have: “Soy Murciana, tengo tres hijos, ayudame” (I’m Murcian, I have three children, help me)... Except maybe instead: “Soy inglesa, no tengo llaves, ayudame” (I’m English, I don’t have any keys, help me).
After she’d showered and changed into some of Alicia’s clothes, she phoned her landlady only to find out that she lives in Alicante and has no connections in Murcia who could help. We’d already phoned Badulake, who said they hadn’t found anything. All we could do now was wait and go to the club ourselves to double check.
As it was nearing dinner-time by this stage, I popped home to grab something to eat and wait for news from the other two. I was exhausted and decided to snuggle up to the traditional post-night-out Harry Potter - but was so worn out I actually fell asleep mid-film and didn’t wake up until the next morning. Thankfully, the news I woke up to was that, although there was no sign of the iPod, both the keys and camera had been found and Annalisa was safely back in her own flat.
That day was taken up with the mountain of work I had to catch up with since having my family there all week. The only respite I had was meeting the girls for drinks in the evening, which didn’t last long either as we were all similarly snowed-under with work and had early starts the next day. When I got back I settled down in bed and turned on an episode of the OC in Spanish, just what I was in the mood for. It was the start of season three and it opened with a chaotic scene at the hospital, but even so, the dialogue seemed incredibly fast - I couldn’t get a word of it. It was only after a few minutes that I suddenly realised the reason it was so difficult to understand was that it wasn’t actually dubbed in Spanish at all - unfortunately, my Italian isn’t so great.
On Monday morning it was a struggle to drag myself out of bed at 8.45 but I had so much to do, I couldn’t afford to sleep in any longer. After breakfast I started researching some topics for my English classes that day, and at 10.30 I went for my run. I spent the rest of the day gathering resources for my English classes and working on my linguistics presentation, which is turning into a bit of a nightmare. As it’s a third-year module, we’re expected to do a thirty-minute presentation as well as a substantial written booklet - all in Spanish. This, on top of the several books-worth of research to find the relevant quotations to support our arguments. Not only that, but our names got missed off the presentations list so we have to be ready to present any time a lesson finishes early, starting from 2nd May. Needless to say, I’m going to have my work cut out this week.
In the afternoon I went for my usual teaching session, this time with all three pupils present. Even with all my resources, it was tricky to keep each of them occupied for an hour this week, as none of them had any extra work to do and sticking to any one topic for an hour would lose their concentration. Guille was particularly difficult to handle; I ended up bribing him with stickers. It was a relief when it was over.
On the way back to the flat it began to rain and I decided to cheer myself up by going into Bershka to spend my birthday money on replacing my brown jacket which had been so heavily criticised by my family (to be fair, it was falling apart). By the time I got back to the flat it was gone 8.30 - just time to have some dinner and get ready before going out again to meet the girls.
We only stayed for a few drinks again, just because everyone is so busy. Lina is going to La Manga as from today to stay with her mum and stepdad, so won’t have any time for university work until next week.
When I got back, I was just settling down to an episode of Сверхъестественное (Supernatural in Russian, my usual go-to programme these days) when my childhood friend Lou popped up on Facebook; half an hour later, she’d booked flights to see me that weekend! And just like that, I felt much better.
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