Ok so I am going to try and tie up a few odds and ends here of things I think have been blogworthy but that I have left out.

First off, I am pretty sure I am going to die of Lung Cancer before I return to the states. Everyone constantly is smoking here, epsecially if you go to a bar or discoteca or even a restaurant. It's tough just walking down the streets when theyre crowded because chances are youre gonna get stuck walking behind a smoker. My clothes all smell of smoke when I come back too. Everything just smells of smoke, right down to my socks. Real annoying.

One night me and a bunch of friends went to a pub quiz night. That was a lot of fun. It was a really small pub and it was full of people. The guy at the bar read out all the questions in English first, then in Spanish (because we were the only English speakers in there, about 6 of us). He spoke English somewhat I guess.....haha but we had just a good a shot at understanding his Spanish as his English. Our team name was, of course, Los American Idiots. We didn't get last though! We tied for second to last haha. A lot of the questions on there were things we had no shot of knowing that only Europeans would know so all in all not bad. The topics were guess whose face it is (not gonna explain that one), Geography, Music and random. Geography we were the only group who knew what city the Bears played in, so we gave some help out to a couple of groups who were winning haha. Had to make some more friends.

(Oh, and mom, I hate to say it, but one of the questions in the Music topic was about the Everley Brothers. And of course, like always, I said Righteous Brother. Que verguenza. I think the question was something like who sings Bye Bye Love or something like that.)

Speaking of friends, I've made a really neat, different group of friends here. We all go to the Bar Ocean which is north of where I live. There are so many of them, but the main group is Victor, Cesar, Ben, David, Luis, Alberto y Javi. Really cool and a great way to practice our Spanish. Cesar is really nice. He's studying law and plans on going to Boston University next year ot study. But he needs to get a 100 on his English exam to do that, so we're helping him with English and he is helping us with Spanish. His English is already pretty good so I hope he can do it. We also have a poker date setup. We're gonna play "Tejas Jodem" as a Spaniard would pronounce it. Even Cesar was at a loss for way they pronounce Texas the Spanish way, but then just butcher Hold 'em in English.

And my friend Victor and Alberto are huge football fans. And Victor loves the NBA....namely Reggie Miller for some reason. Calls him the 3pt God haha. And they are both really cheering for Brett Favre to win Rookie of the Year. I'm kinda surprised how much they know about the NFL...I mean everytime I go out there they always ask me about it and such. Victor loves Peyton Manning, and Alberto LOVES the Bills. So I got the invite over to Victor's crib to play some Madden and NBA 2k10 and then going to Retiro to throw around the Pigskin. Should definitely be interesting - will need some pictures of that!

Other than that....everything else is pretty much holding steady to form. Leave me a comment on here if you want me to address something that I haven't yet or send me an e-mail.... kevin.matteson@hws.edu Or send me an e-mail and tell me how America is......

Hasta Luego...