beware of rant that follows.

Have you ever read the children´s book entitled ¨Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day¨? That is exactly how I would like to describe February 7, 2007.

It all started when I discovered the hole in the new blue sweater that I received lovingly from my family for Hannukah, and it didn´t get much better from there. I discovered that there were more red bumps on my body - two small ones on the other side of my face and a slightly enlarged one on my right hand.

When I got to the swimming pool, I swallowed water and felt uncomfortable with the spanish lifeguard and spanish male water polo players who kept splashing my lane. And the lifeguard made me move lanes cuz she had to test someone and she threw a kickboard on my head to get my attention.

When I went to change into normal clothes (WARNING, THE FOLLOWING MAY MAKE YOU SLIGHTLY UNCOMFORTABLE.), I discovered that, ha, I had forgotten my underpants in my house. Going without for the entire school day was a very new experience for me, and not a pleasant one. And here more frustrations began.

I realized during my walk from the gym to school that I forgot to write down three topics for the news article I need to write for my class... the class that started in 15 minutes. I rushed to the hallway, found a chair, and scribbled down three ideas, one of which, miraculously, my teacher was fine with. (If that isn´t a run-on sentence for a Scripps kid, I don´t know what is.) So my article will be about the differences between journalism in Spain and the U.S. Suprisingly, there are several HUGE differences, including the way the first sentence is written, what details are allowed to be included, and whether or not they are politically biased. Perhaps I can publish the article when it´s done... translated into english.

Anyway, before my next class, Kristen, Kate, and I looked for Paris hostels, for a trip that is not going to materialize this weekend. We realized this after we looked for a train and it costed over 140 bucks each way... and that we need more time to look.

After school, I decided that it was a bit scary that I have been seeing floating black dots in my left eye whenever I go outside, so I told my mom to ask the eye doctor. Apparently, he thinks that it is correlated to the previous inflamation that I had in my iris before I came to Spain, that it has spread to the back of my eye, and that it´s a serious issue that needs immediate medical attention.

So I started bawling my eyes out. I have mysterious bumps everywhere, my eye is going blind, and I am stuck in a country where I cannot even understand what the doctor is telling me. Plus, an appointment with a dermatologist or an eyedoctor costs about 100 buck a piece cuz we don´t have spanish insurance. That´s my train fare for France! Come on!

I talked to my spanish mom, and she said she saw floating dots at one point in her life too. And that´s just wonderful because her retina completely dropped and she is practically blind in one eye. Just the kind of reassurance I wanted to hear. Yup, my half blind spanish mom had the same eye problems that I´m having now. Uh huh, great.

My first midterm´s tomorrow, and I think I can do it... then I have one on Monday and one on Tuesday. All fun things come in packages... you know, like midterms, and eye diseases, and plagues of forgetfulness.

And don´t say I didn´t warn you about the rant. It´s in the title. Off to sleep.