Hello there everyone,

Well, today is the first time I am spending my birthday in a foreign country, and I know that it won´t be the last time either.

My birthday had an interesting start. I was getting dressed for work this morning when my roommate decided to wish me a happy birthday. He thought I was sleeping, so he just opened the door without knocking. And when he opened the door I had no shirt on. I shrieked and yelled at him to get out in English. I was so shocked that I lost my ability to yell at him in Spanish. Haha. At least he appologized after. I think he´ll know to knock next time. Sheesh.

 Today I have to say that I had a nice birthday overall. For starters, my boss gave me a lot of candy, and my coworkers signed a birthday card for me today. I wasn´t expecting anything, so this was a very nice surprise for me. I ate so much candy today. I was wired and giggling by the time I left the office.

My roommate also invited me to his family´s house for dinner and his mom cooked us a wonderful meal. I didn´t realize that we were eating dinner so I stuffed myself full of appetizers before the meal. I hate it when that happens. She also made a nice cake for me. They also gave my present which was a pair of pajamas for the winter that I am wearing right now. They are keeping me warm.

That was the good part of my birthday and I was lucky to be surrounded by people that cared. Even though I was lucky and had a wonderful birthday I still kinda feel lonely and empty. I´ve kinda been feeling this way for the past week and I can´t really describe the feeling, but it sucks. I really miss my family and friends back home and most friends back home don´t remember that it´s my birthday.

I am kinda starting to go out with someone here and he forgot my birthday today. He was also supposed to call me and make plans to hang out later this week. But of course that didn´t happen either. Today I really realized that he is not a keeper. I think that I will be saying goodbye to him soon. I don´t have a lot of faith in men, and the little faith that I have left is slowly starting to disappear. Oh well. What can ya do ?

I am happy that I got paid today from my job, but I realized that I got jacked out of some of my pay. I worked about 21 days this month but, they are only paying me for 19. I don´t understand. I am so upset. I am gonna go to work early to try and straighten this out. I work my ass off for shit pay, and they still try to keep some of my salary from me. I don´t understand why. There is soooooo much money in this business. They shouldn´t be doing this to me. I hope that this is all a mistake. I really have to watch my back. It sucks because I heavily depend on the money that I get. Stupid motherfuckers.

I learned an expression here : No me toca las pelotas. Loosely translated it means ¨don´t mess with me´´. If you wanna get literal it means ¨¨ don´t touch my balls.¨ I gotta learn how to stand up for myself more. And here I feel like I have to fight for the pay that I worked for and am entitiled to.

Anyways, I better go to bed. Ciao.

More Ramblings ! And tommorow is my Birthday :)

Hello there my lovelies.............

I intended to write this journal entry a while ago, but AOL wouldn´t let me. Each time I tried to write an entry, it magically coughed up some little error that shut down the page. I was really irritated. Excuse my French si vous plait, but AOL really sucks balls. And although I use AOL journals to type my blog, it is pretty limited in my point of view. Okay, enough about that..........

Although it is sunny here in Barcelona, it very very cold.  And my roommate and I are too cheap to turn on the darn heater even though we have it and don´t have to suffer from the cold weather.

What really stinks is getting up in the morning. My bed is so nice and warm and my room is so cold. Sometimes I have to use the bathroom and the toilet seat is too cold !!!!! That really wakes me up.

What else.......... Ah yes ! I was supposed to get paid by one of my students over the weekend. But she told me that she didn´t have the money and that she would do it the next weekend. She also canceled class the next day because she was having some problems. I don´t know what I am gonna do if she doesn´t pay me. I travel about an hour each way to get to her house during the weekend. Plus I teach her at a reduced rate because she was my first student. And she knows that I really need the money. She is a really nice woman and I always love going over because she is a wonderful student and she invites me for lunch. But I still need to get paid.

I guess that if she doesn´t pay I just will forget the whole thing and never go back, because in my opinion that´s kinda like stealing from me.Because ya know, I do depend on the money, and I wasn´t asking for charity. She was the one that called me up and asked me to teach her.

 Now I always tell my students that I get paid by the hour that same day. All the worrying about getting paid is just not worth it. If I don´t get paid next weekend, I will be out by about 100 Euros which is a lot of money for me, but it isn´t the end of the world. I will keep ya posted.

And tommorow is my birthday. I hope that I won´t be stuck here at home doing nothing. How sad would that be. I will be 24. I remember turning 21. That felt like yesterday. And now the time just flies by very fast. I didn´t think that I would be celebrating my 24th birthday in Barcelona. But here I am.

Anyways, I am gonna go to bed now. Ciao.

Hello there my lovelies............................

Hello there my lovelies............................

I was really busy this week and really didn´t have a chance to post anything. A lot happened.

First off, Happy Thanksgiving to all. We don´t celebrate it here, so I of course had to work yesterday. It was my first Thanksgiving abroad. I normally spend Thanksgivings with my grandparents in Northern California, but I couldn´t this year. I really miss them a lot, but at least I got to talk to them today and I was happy.

I also got my hair trimmed yesterday. I went to a nice English-speaking hair salon here in Barcelona. It was a nice salon too, with a lot of antique stuff. Anyways, I always feel better after a haircut. The hair stylists here kinda massage your scalp when they shampoo your hair. That never happened in the salons back at home. What´s up with that?

I also started teaching my new student this week on Tuesday. I was in a hurry to get to his house, and on the way there I stepped in a little pile of dog shit without realizing it. I didn´t realize it until a couple of minutes later when I felt a lump under my shoe. That was nasty. There was nothing I could do to get the damn shoes clean again. I tried walking in the grass, but that was no good because there were a million piles of dog shit planted there. I also tried walking in puddles, and it still wouldn´t come off.  When I got to his house I told him it would be better for me to take off my shoes, but he said that it wasn´t necessary, even though I asked him like three times.  So.......... while I was giving him his lesson, the room kinda smelled like ass a little. I hope that he didn´t think it was me.

Oh ! My mom sent me a package with DVDs in ENGLISH !!!!! Yay ! I also was sent bubble gum and cookies. I shared a little with my roommate. I am gonna teach him how to blow bubbles soon.

Speaking of my roommate, he didn´t hear me come home today. And I was in the office with the door shut talking to my grandparents. So after he got out of the shower he walked in naked to get something. Luckily I didn´t see anything except the expression on his face. He looked so startled. That´ll teach him to be a little more careful next time.

What else........................... Have you ever seen the movie Boiler Room ? My job strongly reminds me of that movie, except for the company that my bosses are promoting is actually real and legit. That movie will never be the same for me again.

But like the Boiler Room where they had a nice party, we are also having a nice party. We are gonna have dinner at a nice expensive restaurant near the beach. I think that my boss reserved the place just for us. And afterwards we are gonna go and chill out at a nice lounge. I am really looking forward to that. I didn´t think that us telemarketers were gonna be invited. I love nice parties where I get to dress up. Yay ! My first fancy party in Barcelona :) I hope that I will have many more parties to attend as I get into the professional working world.

Well, that is all for now. I was supposed to go out tonight, but the guy cancelled on me. This is the second time he did that, and we´ve never even met. We were supposed to go see Natacha Atlas in concert last Friday but he cancelled on me at the last minute. So I nicely told him today that I don´t want to meet him anymore, despite his appologies. They never learn, I tell ya.

There is a saying that I recently found. ´´ Men are like wine. It is our duty to stomp the shit out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with. ´´

I am not a man hater. However I have learned that most men don´t respect you until you stand your ground. They don´t treat you well unless you give them their own medicine. It is not until I am a bitch that they treat me well. No wonder it is hard to go out here. I am a nice girl ! That is my problem. Oh well.

Anyways, I am going for reals now. Caio.

Yay ! I finally found a way to post pictures !!!!

A Magical Moment in Barcelona

Hello there my lovelies.................

Well, last night I went to La Paloma to see Natacha Atlas on her Hope Tour. There was another singer there too, but he sucked. He looked like a monkey on stage, and I was just praying for him to get off the stage so that I could see Natacha.

People in the club loved Natacha. She looks like she gained some weight, and it seemed like she was tired at first. But she seemed to get more into it as people continued to cheer her on. Nevertheless, she was still very beautiful and I was glad that I went to see her, even though I had to endure the other horrible singer. She has such a beautiful voice.

She also bellydanced a little and I loved that so much. I was right in front of the stage so while she was dancing she was looking directly at me and smiling for a couple of seconds.

I listen to her music all the time and I used to dance and perform to her music. I never thought that I would have the opportunity to see her in the flesh. And I don´t think that she would have ever made her way to my city in California. So I thought this was a wonderful way to spend a Friday night.

My roommate went with me too, and like me he hated the other singer. Although he liked Natacha Atlas, he didn´t like her as much as I did. Oh well. At least I tried to warn him.

Well folks, that is all for today. Maybe I will have some interesting tidbits to share tommorow.

Ciao.