as i type this, i can see outside of my window the former house of the old Spanish dictator Franco. Olaya´s house, in this quaint spanish town just outside of madrid, is so cool. at first she told me it was like a suburb, but it is really nothing like Kanata. her neighbourhood is built into the mountainside and the houses are scattered between the trees and lakes along the valley, as Franco´s house looks down sternly over everything. meanwhile, kanata boasts of...the scotiabank centre.
i totally do not get foreign keyboards. it took me forever to figure out how to do the "at" sign, and i´ve forgotten again.
i met olaya from the university of ottawa when she was staying in Canada on exchange. she is a totally cool young filmmaker and a student at one of the public universities here. we made a few films together while we were in ottawa. she´s also a musician, and we´ve written some music together, but i can´t seem to find the tracks we recorded last year. she speaks all sorts of languages, and i´m so glad to have her around, because my spanish is pretty atrocious. she´s been helping me pick up a few basic phrases (like how to swear!). i´ve been communicating with olaya´s mom mostly in French, because her mom used to study in Paris, but i´m still a little shy because my french is pretty rusty too, even if i am an ottawa girl. ah well. i´ll have a much harder time in poland, i know.
i saw somewhere that it is supposed to rain in madrid. it better damn well not. i feel like i am the rain goddess that bad weather follows around.
okay gotta split... olaya is playing tour guide today and showing me madrid, which may or may not involve tapas. woo! until then, i leave you with one of the goofy fun movies that olaya and i made together over a year ago:
