peanut butter

before leaving the u.s., someone told me the piece of rubbish that you cannot find peanut butter in stores over here - only nutella. it's definitely there, though not with quite so much selection. but in preparation for the loss of this staple i brought over two huge jars of jif in my suitcase - maybe they contributed to my expensive overweight bag situation. so, now because it is sitting there i eat it all the time, when before it was only occasionally; i am a few days away from finishing the first jar. there are worse things, i guess.

you may have noticed that the appearance of my blog has changed, which is because some issues of readability were brought to my attention. hopefully the black on white writing rather than vice versa is an improvement - please let me know - you can even leave a comment. besides, this look is a bit more overcast and wintry-coloured, much like my home here is and will continue to be.

i've promised myself that i will do my laundry and finish reading all of madame bovary tonight so that i can spend all of tomorrow reading sociology of education in the library, so i will only say a few things:

first of all, thank you to those who have told me you are reading along and who have emailed me; it helps me to feel more purposeful and spatially-oriented, and it is greatly appreciated. keep 'em coming, and i will do the same.

secondly, i've found out from my employer cameron that he really needs me for breakfast most of the time, because a breakfast waiter is quitting soon. it looks like my schedule will be wed, thurs, friday breakfasts & friday dinners. i think this will actually be fine for me - i still have fridays (after work ends ala 10:30ish), saturdays & mondays to hang out until the wee hours if i so choose, and the rest of the time i can get my work done. i don't mind getting up early - i am pretty good at it when i put my mind to it, though i may look rather a fright to the hotel guests - and it is satisfying to be through with work already for the day and home again by 11:30. so, that's the plan and i am very happy i am making this money, especially so after the dent prague is putting in my savings from this summer.

lastly, permit me to go on for a moment in appreciation of my outings with my spanish companions. conversing with them is so interesting, for while they can carry on well enough in english, they aren't perfect and i often correct them at their request. because of this language barrier, they are so intent for me to understand what they are saying; even when they go off into rapid spanish for a minute they make sure to report back and tell me everything they've said. also, pretty much everyone in spain is very politically active, and americans as far as i can see hardly ever think about spain except for maybe when one of their cities gets bombed, so they really sincerely want me to know all about it. apparently there is a very strong faction of catalonians who want to secede from spain and consider themselves to have an entirely different identity. last night at dinner they got to talking about the madrid bombings and the elections following them, and even within the four of them (a fourth, francesco, joined last night, who gave me a kiss per cheek immediately upon meeting me, causing me to blush) there were very diverse opinions, and i think it is sincerely interesting. they practically know as much as i do about american politics, so i may as well learn some things about them while i am around. it is also very helpful to me as a conversationalist, because it forces me to put things that can be complex quite simply, which is certainly a skill to be cultivated, particularly because i intend to be a teacher someday.
before i head off to my laundry, there is one really adorable spanish thing they told me about last night. they don't use an equivalent word to "soulmate" in spanish, but they do have the same concept, and when translated into english the phrase they use is "middle-orange." apparently they believe that you are a half an orange and have another half existing out there somewhere with whom, when united, you will form a complete orange. so strange, so silly! but quite lovely, i think.

okay, off to laundry, some flat party in my flat building for a few minutes with mandy - who is definitely inviting me to copenhagen over christmas break, and also my friend alex from uva (who perhaps reads this? if so, hello!) who shares the edinburgh-love is definitely coming for a few days over break too, he says, all of which is excellent, excellent news - and then back to the brewing adultery in madame bovary. literature is so adultery-obsessed, which is somewhat disheartening but does make for some damn good stories. i'm off, love to all-