Poverty, Penguins and Pancakes

Hey Hey

Well good news is that it seems to finally have got warmer in Madrid. Today it's t-shirt weather and I for one am very pleased about it. Things have been continuing pretty much as normal after a pretty mad week when Peter Piper and his friend came to visit.. 5 long nights of partying and then shopping everyday.. crazy but a good laugh although I spent the following week in bed recovering!

I am now experiencing what it is like to live like a peasant, on the contrary to what you may be thinking this is not some profound social experiment but more due to the fact that i have run out of funds and have had to limit myself to a food budget of 3 euros a week for the next 2 months. Unfortunately I spent this entire budget on pancake mix and fillings yesterday (which were absolutely delicious, I had 8!!) but never mind.. at least I'll be thin now!

My new found extreme poverty has not stopped me going out tho, to save money we are only really frequenting places where we are on the guestlist and only drinking water (or in the case of the D&G party that we went to on Saturday.. the place has a free bar!!) Giving up alcohol has not been as hard as I imagined, the real test is now giving up chocolate for lent.. the fact that I am expecting a chocolate parcel from England doesn´t really help matters!

Have been to some really funky clubs lately. One had these naked people painted as sunflowers wandering around. It was very surreal but really cool. I don´t think the student clubs at Uni are going to be the same! Got chatted up by yet another lesbian on saturday, I´m thinking that I must have that lesbian look about me!?

Also have had my exam results through - 2 fails and one high pass. Not really bothered, just glad that they don't count towards my degree. Yesterday and Monday were the first days that i have been to lectures and not fallen asleep! I think the sun must have something to do with it.
Went to a biological park the other day. It was really good apart from the fact that all the other clientele were under the age of 5. They have a variety of different domes with different types of wildlife in each one, in one you can see nocturnal animals awake and playing as in the dome during the day it´s nighttime and vice versa. Another dome is climatised like a tropical jungle with storms every half hour and little jungle animals and birds running about. My favourite was the artic dome tho. We spent about an hour just watching penguins swimming around, I wish I was a penguin.

This week it has been carnaval, people dresing up and big processions and stuff, some of it very strange, only the Spanish would think it up. Today is the burying of the sardine - not sure quite what this entails but might go and check it out later.

Don´t have any other news for now.. won´t be coming home for easter as i can´t afford to renew my passport until next term!! (is it illegal to be in a foreign country with an expired passport?) anyway you all should come and visit me!

Happy first day of lent