Procrastination Station

So I have a lot of homework to do today, but I don't feel like doing any of it so I've spent the day doing other important but non-essential tasks. Such as running, snuggling with Pantera, submitting my courses for credit back at UW-Madison (ok so that one was important) and now blogging. I thought I would take this time to address a few things that I know some of you may have been wondering about.

1) Does your host mom have a job? (This is one my parents ask a lot.)

To some this may seem silly, she is a grown woman living alone, of course she has a job. However, in Spain it is common for people to not have jobs and having a study abroad student, such as myself, is how they make some extra money. Now I suspected that my host mom had a job because she was gone everyday at the same times, but I didn't know for sure. I was hesitant to ask because I couldn't think of a great way to ask if she had a job, it just seemed awkward, and I do everything in my power to avoid awkward situations. However, we had a lovely three hour lunch last Wednesday and the answer just fell into my lap, she is going to school, studying theatre. So she doesn't really have a job, but she does do something during the day.

2) Why is the cat named Pantera? (so I realize no one asked this but it's a funny story)

I asked why she named the cat Pantera and I got a much more interesting story than I had bargined for. She told me that one day she was walking down the street and saw a scrawny, filthy kitten. So she decided to pick it up, take it home and care for it, however, the kitten had other plans. It scratched and bit and was just generally angry because "it didn't know me yet", my host mom said she was covered in scratches and bleeding. Due to the black/dirty color and it's wild nature when she found it, she decided to name it Pantera.

Now I was really surprised by this story for two reasons, first because Pantera is a really pretty cat, she looks purebred like someone would pay a lot of money for. Secondly, and most importantly I couldn't believe she had scratched my host mom like that because Pantera is the sweetest, cuddliest, most friendly cat I have ever met.

Do I look like a mean street cat?

How about now?

3) Does your host mom speak other languages?

I found out that she speaks German as well as Spanish and very rudimentary English. She lived in Germany for 6 years, I had her say something to me and her German sounds very pretty, much less throaty and phlegmy than real German, probably because of the Spanish accent. She then asked me if I spoke Dutch, because of my last name, which of course is a big NO. Then she asked me, once again why I'm so dark. I told her I don't really know but I'm German too. She thought about this for awhile and then said well, I guess some of them are dark too, but do you have any Native American in you. I just laughed at that, I think it is funny how interested she is in how "dark" I am. She almost died when I told her that my sister is a blonde.

Hopefully you had been wondering about some of these things, or at least found them interesting!