Tomorrow I have my final exam at school, but tonight Hector, Chris and I are having drinks and talking.  Hector is helping us with our bad Spanish, and I'm explaining some finer points of English to him.  I have to study tomorrow, but thankfully I don't have my test until 2:30 in the afternoon, since I'm in no shape to do it tonight.

Last night, Chris and I went out to dinner at the restuarant that we liked so much the other night.  Chris came with a bufanda (scarf) that was knitted by a friend of his in New York.  By sheer coincidence, she knitted it in the national colors of Spain, so I had to snag it.  His jacket is black leather with red, white, and blue stripes, which didn't work at all with the colors in the scarf.  Mine is a brown leather jacket, which works well with them.  He got may black scarf and I got his red and gold one ...

The metro in Madrid has announced that it is going to cut wages across the board, and it has created a big controversy here.  Actually, I'm beginning to think that this country thrives on controversy, and I have to admit, that sometimes I feel the pasion myself.  This evening, a big protest of union workers came down our street, right below our balcony.  And while I wasn't feeling their pasión tonght, I was enjoying the spectacle.  They had drummers like American football bands.  I was dancing in the living room to the rhytum.  Chris was a drum major in high school, and he said that those drummers were hired; they weren't simply part of the union.  I told him that he needed to go down there with a baton and lead the parade.  He's only 5'-5", but his attitude more than makes up for it.  I tol' him to go down there and feel-a the pasión of España ... he refrained.