Changes...

I'm going to add a longer entry later on today about some of the things I've been doing over the weekend, but for now I'm just going to give a brief update about what's going on with me overall and in Spain overall right now.

Yesterday in Spain there were protests in 5 plazas of Madrid, a few of which are just some odd blocks from where I live. These protests over the day became violent and several protesters, and police officers, were injured when people tried to press beyond the boundaries set by the police. If you're interested in reading a bit more about what went on, here's one site:

 http://rt.com/news/spain-protests-parliament-crisis-942/

I'm sure you can find information about this anywhere though. Likely it's on the news in the U.S. Anyway, I wanted to go shopping to grab a couple winter items since the weather here dropped 30 degrees overnight and suddenly we were thrust into fall. My host mom was adamant that I not leave the house unless it was to go to class. I was thinking... okay I really just want to run to H&M really quickly, it's not going to take more than 45 minutes... but I heard the helicopters all day and then when I left for the Atocha Renfe train station I saw hundreds of people already gathered (at about 4:30 p.m. here) on Calle Atocha and Paseo del Prado.

When I was on my walk home (at about 8:00 p.m.) there were even more people gathered, and lots of police. I don't need to walk through any of it to get home so I really had no idea of how bad things were until I got home and my host mom was frantically calling her friends asking if they had gotten home okay since they live by some of the plazas where the protesting was happening. Then we watched the news and I started realizing how intense the protests had gotten.

So as if the unrest here with the protests isn't enough to make me not want to leave the house, this morning it was raining. Normally, I like when it rains back home because everything smells so fresh. Here... it stinks when it rains. Not to mention I've gotten a sore throat (yes, of course, right before I leave to go see Sam :/). Which was an experience in itself. I stopped by the pharmacy and told the pharmacist that I had a sore throat. She asked me if I had any other symptoms (cough, runny nose, fever, headaches, etc.) and I said no. She went behind the counter, got me two prescriptions, I paid 9 euros, she informed me on how to take them, and I was on my way. No doctor necessary! I thought it was pretty funny...

Anyway I'm still waiting to see if what they gave me is actually going to help... so far no. But I've been having lots of hot beverages, taking vitamins, drinking lots of water, taking cough drops, etc. Although doing this has proved no easy task!! I brought a big supply of vitamins with me, since I take them normally in the US and had a lot left, but here they are super expensive! Especially vitamin C. As for water... the water here from the tap is totally fine to drink. But there aren't any bubblers anywhere!!! It's made drinking water sort of difficult. I see people drinking cafe con leche ALL DAY but never see anyone drinking water. I don't get how they all are alive if no one stays hydrated. As for the hot beverages, ugh. Nothing here is really ever "hot." More like lukewarm. The coffee here is really espresso with a lot of milk which I have to add a ton of sugar to for it to taste normal. So the coffee is hot, but the milk comes from the fridge, ergo lukewarm coffee. I must admit I'm getting a little homesick for waking up at home to Dave's fresh prepared steaming hot chocolate raspberry coffee..............

Anyway I'll update later today with a post covering what I did over the last weekend with some pictures. Just thought I'd get some thoughts out today since I've had a lot on my mind last night and this morning.