Day 134

That's right. I went one hundred and thirty three days in Madrid without being pick-pocketed.

Day number 134 got me.


The story is short, but it's a good lesson learned. I lost my abono. The monthly metro pass that just a few days ago I described as magic.

My destination was a disco- Kapital, at the Atocha metro station. First I had to take the metro outside my house to another one- and there I had my abono. I had to run it through the machine again there.

I am always a bit paranoid about my bag, constantly checking to make sure that it is closed.

From there I met some friends at a different metro station in the west side of Madrid, and later we headed to Atocha. I did not need my ticket again until after the disco.

Leaving the Atocha metro station, I put a flyer in my bag. It is possible that at this time my abono fell out, or even before this point.

We get to the coat check at the disco and I notice the outside pocket is open. Panicked, I looked for my abono, and mistook it for a different piece of paper.

Leaving the disco early since I am still sick, I get to the metro- abonoless.

After thinking about it more, I can almost confirm I got pick-pocketed. The strange thing is I don't remember being in crowds really. Where we were really wasn't all that crowded.

As of now that's all I'm aware of that I've lost. Hopefully, that was all. Being January 15th, I have just enough time to apply for another card (it takes 15-20 days) for next month. However, I do not know if I will still be living in Madrid next month. I am moving in more or less one week. Where? No idea.

I still however have a 'A' level pass (I was robbed of a B3) and could use that. But am I going to use thirty trips on the metro in one week?

So the icing on the cake for the week. Monday was a trip to the hospital.

Let me make a note- if the United States does not go to free health care- we'll all good.

Like seriously? the hospital was terrible. This place was more like a clinic, but it was nuts. After finally getting my paper work cleared up (there really wasn't much...minus the fact that no medical records were included) I went and sat outside door #8 for over two hours. After the doctor knew what type of throat infection I had, his only question was- "What are you allergic to?"

And this doctor doesn't speak a word of English. Penicillin translates just fine, but I guess ceclor doesn't? But it wasn't too important to him, he gave me my perscription and off I went to the pharmacy. I had an idea of what the Spanish name was, but took it home and translated it before I took it anyways.

I'm not sure what I have now, but I have no over the counter medicines to help me out. Tomorrow I will be on a search for what I can find, as I'm not sure what they have here in Spain. Hmm...

**I'll try to get pictures, as this post lacks a great deal of creativity. Click on the picture to make it bigger.

So it's been the longest Christmas vacation for me on record- with 25 days in total. This past Monday I was at school for only a total of two hours before going to the clinic, and was out until Thursday. Friday I should have stayed home, as I got more of flu like symptoms and barely had class. First hour was PE, and I was allowed to stay inside and study since running outside probably wasn't the best thing for me. Second hour was biology. Third hour was philosphy, but for some reason the kids had to take some type of survery or test for statistical purposes, and I was asked to go to the library. Next was our 'recess', and the class after that was an English class, in which I am excused to go to the library and study Spanish. After that was literature. Ending the day was English where, well... I don't have to work that hard.

On a side note, I would like to apologize for all my grammar mistakes. Not only has my English been slipping, my spell checker here on blogger is set to Spanish.

So according to it- I have spelt every single word wrong. Talk about confidence...

As I'm sure I can fix the settings to that, I would like to make a side note that my Google search is also in Spanish. www.Google.es (ES=Espana)



As I know I have gotten google.com before, I continue to fail to access the website. Perhaps I'll get it figured out one day.


So that's how I conclude my post. Nothing special, just a boring week of an exchange student. I'd like to point out the fact we (exchange students) didn't sign up for a walk in the park. In my case, it was a walk through Madrid. We come across a challenge, and "take it by the horns."

Like a bull. The Spanish way.


-mb

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going."