Prior to yesterday my days here have been fairly calm. It has been very sunny and warm outside. I spend a good deal of time outside with the dogs, on the git fiddle, and playing soccer. The house has been very quiet because none of the family has returned from San Sebastian. It is very interesting being in another country, still not all the way settled in and in charge of someones house. Its feels different than house sitting because Im still in the learning stretch of my privileges and responsibilities to the house and family.

Since I woke up I have been thinking how to talk with my family about this weekend. Im supposed to be leaving for Valencia tomorrow. However that would mean leaving the house and the dogs alone. Ive just been thinking of how to phrase it, I dont want to sound rude because they are dealing with some very important family issues currently and I dont know how to ask them if its ok.

Some other news: I have had a different house keeper since Thursday. Margarita left for the Dominican Republic and will not return until the 28 of March. Salma has been very nice while she has been here. She makes dinner a lot and yesterday morning I had to tell her not to make me dinner because I had so many left overs. Today, well this afternoon, when I woke up and made it out of my cave I went up to the kitchen for some food and Salma has made dinner for me yet again and it looks delicious.

Well as most of you know, yesterday was St Patrick's Day, I woke up at a reasonably late time scrambled with getting out the door to meet Abbie and Sarah-both language assistance that I met here and they are both from England. We were going to do a tour of the Royal Palace. Upon arriving at the Palace we quickly learned that the Palace was closed to the public today which was a bummer. Not to be let down for it was a beautiful day; we set off to find food for a picnic.

We found a nice shop where I got a sandwich, apple, and a beer for two euros which is a great deal and went to a park for a while. We sat in the sun, ate our sandwiches, wathced people row boats and relaxed. After a fair amount of time passed we all headed back to our houses to relax before my night started.

Well the plan was for me to take a little bit of a nap since I would be out all night, but plans quickly changed. I decided to learn some new songs on the guitar, play with the dogs and doing things opposite of relaxing and conserving energy.

Around nine I headed back into the city to meet people for tonight. When I got on the bus it was mostly full of teenagers. I met abbie and we headed down to puerta del sol to meet a group of other language assistants. Having never meet these people before they were kinda hard to locate and the only other contact I had was at a jazz club until midnight.

After we waited by the bear in sol we gave up and went to a bar until later. Now that I think about it I did see them there(im meet them later that night). Abbie and I found ourselves a nice bar, it wasnt an irish bar but it didnt have a line, cover charge, and it had empty bar stools.

We sat down and ordered our first drinks of the evening. In my mind the only way you can drink beer on St Pattie's Day is by the pint. We talked for a while and after my pint we ordered a picture of sangria and enjoyed that. Soon enough it was mid night and Felica got out of her jazz club. We met up at an Irish pub and I met the rest of the group that I was supposed to meet earlier.

Finally I made it to an Irish bar so I could enjoy my pints of guiness now. We sat in the bar taking, making new friends with some of the locals and killing time. Sooner than I expected it was maybe 5ish and we left the bar to find some churros.
We were(I) was a bit distracted by one of the guys that works there cause of his really bright red wig he was wearing. We ended up talking for a bit, he was trying to convince me that he was from Ireland himself which is why he works there. This could be true but I dont know I was convinced but Abbie wasnt. He then gave us some nice St Patties Day hats and I bought us a shot of Jameson. Finally we left in search of churros. This was my first churros expereince in Spain and I have to say it was really good, unlike any others that ive had. You got to dip them in fresh warm milk chocolate. So good

After churros we walked some more to find another bar. We wanted to find a new place so w kept waking when we met some people on the side or the street, or in the street, or was it an ally? I dont know the fine details. We were talking with them and one of the three guys was rolling a joint. We stuck around for about two more minuets talking with them.

He wasnt being to discrete that he had weed. About thirty seconds after he lit his joint three men walked over, I was paying that much attention but i think felicia and abbie started to walk away. One man comes up to me and tells me its now allowed here-said it in Spanish. It was some street cops, I took the easy way out raised both my hands and said look man I dont speak any spanish ad im not from here. Felicia yelled at me to go so I quickly walked away.

We finally found a bar were we settled for about an hour. A couple interesting things happened there. First when I came back from the bathroom I sat down next to Felicia and Abbie. Some time, a short time, went by when I noticed a two men sitting next to me and behind them was a really nice guitar. I turned around to get a better look at it and the closest fellow to me said something.

I asked him if I could look at his guitar, he said no, well he didnt just say no he kind of pushed me back. I told him i didnt need to pick it up but can i look at it. He said no its nothing forget about it, i didnt hear that the first time and asked him to repeat it, he did and he was pissed. His friend quickly

Next I met a very nice deaf elder man, unfortunately i never got his name. He was very nice and fixed my shirt a couple of times so that I looked nice. I tried hard to buy him a drink, he refused, I couldnt even buy him water. I got my picture with this nice man and then we left for breakfast.

I was trying hard to stay awake the best that I could on the bus ride home but it didnt work. Luckily my head smashed off the window just in time, we were one stop before mine. I got off the bus and walked home. I didnt know at the time but i think i was speed walking/staggering whatever you want to call it back to my house.

As soon as I was in the door and headed for my room, drew the shades and went to sleep.