New ledger; Spaniards criticizing my english

I found out that my 7:30 am flight from Sevilla to Madrid to Chicago next week for Liz's (Becka's sister) wedding is going to cause me considerable damage, primarily to my pocketbook. I don't know why I picked that early of a flight, b/c I can't get to Sevilla that early; it's 2 hours away and there aren't buses or trains that early.

I have the option of staying overnight in Sevilla, but that's not really an option b/c I have to teach from 9-10pm the day before and there are no buses/trains after that.

I'll end up paying $175 to cancel, plus $69 for the new ticket. This is going into my newest ledger, called

"Why do things early? You just get screwed. The Last Minute is the best minute"
1. Booked hotel for three nights in Cadiz on internet before coming because 'you don't go to Europe without a place to stay'. Found out hotel was misleading about its location and was 1.5 hours away, in Cadiz province, not city. Cost $300.
2.Bought airline ticket months in advance, trying to save money. End up spending $200 more than if I had tried to book it a week in advance.

Ended my training phase of teaching English today. Next week, it's the real deal: I will teach four classes of about 2.3 students each. Hopefully they'll fill up, but for now, it's just a few classes: 7-8 year olds, 10-11, 12-13, and adults.

I met one of the adults yesterday and he made fun of the way I said the number 20. He asked me, 'come se dice veinte en ingles?' I said, 'twenty' thinking 'whew, this guy's really low level...' But then he told me, 'no, it's twenty.' I said, 'that's what i said, twenty.' Then I got a lecture about how American English sounded bad and how you're supposed to pronounce the 't', as in 'twenty' instead of 'twinny.' So he should be fun in class.

Losses across the board

So if Peyton Manning wasn't undroppable, I'd cut him from my fantasy team for costing me two losses already this season with his embarrassing underperformances. I think I'm going to write an e-mail to Tony Dungy and tell him to bench his ass.

What's that? The Colts are 3-0? Who cares? Peyton's thrown 2 TDs and 2 INTs through three games. Last year he had 9 TDs and 1 INT through the same number of games. That's just not cutting it for my #1 draft pick.

Astros lost thanks to Mike 'the Joke' Gallo and Phil 'I outsmart myself worse than Bob Brenley' Garner, who decided that a left-handed specialist who cannot get left-handers out should come in to pitch with the game on the line with a left-hander at bat.

Went to a charming town called Vejer de la Frontera that the tour book said was a 'labrynth' and called it a 'white village.' I wasn't sure what either of those meant until I saw the city on a hill with wildly undulating streets and every building whitewashed. Really cool.

Went to church this morning in the Cathedral. Huge dud. They decided that 17th century acoustic ingenuity wasn't enough for the demands of modern Churchhood, so they installed a massive microphone and speaker system in the church. Since the natural acoustics were still in place, the combination resulted in a terrible echo, rendering most of what the priest said in Spanish unintelligible. There was hardly any life in the church and it was inundated with tourists walking in during the liturgy. Despite a beautiful setting, I doubt I'll return very much.

Estate Party Canceled

My friend Elisabeth got us invited to a party at an estate in the countryside, complete with an enormous Spanish-style bbq, swimming pools, horseback riding, and all kinds of fancy rich-Spanish people stuff. Her roommate did so b/c he felt back for bringing 10 people back to the apartment at 6 in the morning and being louder after Elisabeth asked them to keep it down. He made her coffee when she woke up and then walked her to school, trying to appear nice, but Elisabeth knew that he was really just trying to get her from telling anyone at school about the debacle, knowing it would cost him future students from living there.

But then he called us after we waited around all day for him to pick us up to say he ran out of room in his car b/c he had to carry some speakers and he'd already promised rides to two others. She was not too pleased.

Our backup plan was going to the beach, though, so it wasn't too bad.

I go to church this morning at the cathedral, which should be an experience, to say the least. It is beautiful inside, except for the Wrigley Field-style nets everywhere to catch falling pieces of ceiling...

True Lies and Goodbyes

Since I'm still not allowed to tell people from the course that I got a job (it'd be a bit rude I think) with the school, I have to avoid awkward conversations about my future plans. The terrible thing is my sense of integrity won't allow me to really lie, so I try to tell half truths, such as in the following conversation.

Girl from course who is currently unemployed and would love to have my job: So, what are you doing after the course?
Me: Teaching English, hopefully (there's a chance my job offer was a fraud. small chance, yes, but a chance)
Girl: Well we're going to Sevilla, you should join us.
me: I think I'm going to stay in Cadiz. (truth)
Girl: oh do you think you'll find a job?
me: it would be nice to have some work. (this is true)
Girl: Well if you don't, you should come join us in Sevilla.
me: Yes, if I can't find work here, it would be nice to try Sevilla out. (generic truth revealing nothing)

Anyways, it's difficult to do, but i'm still glad I am in the situation I'm in rather than still looking for a job.

I found an apartment (flat) today. I'll be living with a German girl. I don't really know much about her but I somehow decided to live with her after only meeting her for 3 minutes...

But the apartment is amazing - the previous owner calls it a hobbit hole - the ceilings are barely tall enough for me, let alone my future roommate... I'll be about 1 minute from school and my job, and i'll be on the first floor of the building, which is nice b/c there's only one thing I hate more than stairs: fat men wearing leopard print thongs.

I'm generally really excited about my future here in Cadiz, but it's a bit rough at the moment because all my friends are leaving. I have three main friends, a French girl who speaks german and english, an English girl from Cornwall, and an American girl from DC who went to Wm & Mary. It's nice having girls for friends for the first time since freshman year, but it does suck when the whole class makes fun of you and your 'harem.' What am I supposed to do? There are 14 people in the class, and only three guys. Why is it a problem that I have made friends with three girls?

Movin' on

My course ends today with a 15 minute interview with the Moderator, someone from the parent company who ensures that our grades were fair. Our tutors told us that if we showed up hungover though, it wouldn't be a huge problem. sweet...

Still worried about Rita. My mom told me they left at 8 am to try to get out of Houston. By 5 pm, they were almost out of gas and had only got as far as Kingwood. For those of you that aren't familiar with Houston, that's about 45 minutes away normally.... Since they couldn't find any gas (there's no gas anywhere in Houston), they just had to go back home. Terrible... They assured me that they'll be ok though because the storm's turning back towards Lousiana. Poor New Orleans...

Might go to Africa sometime next week, but today I'm going to the beach. good luck with the 'cane if you're around houston...

I got a job!!

In a stunning development, after sending out only six résumés and not even being interviewed, i received a job offer!

The company where I am taking classes is starting an english course his year and they wanted a teacher from the course. And i guess they decided they wanted me!

I was, of course, deeply honored and nearly accepted on the spot. I'll be teaching all ages: kids, teens and adults, and all levels as well. They're looking for a flat for me as well, and I can't tell you what a relief it is to know that I don't have to move to a brand new city and look for a job only to find out that the boss is a jerk, they don't pay what they promised and I generally get screwed. Instead, i get to work with all the great people i've already met at the school and they'll be there to help as well... It really couldn't have worked out any better.

now i'm at the beach in shorts but no boxers. I took them off in the water trying to pick up this unknown thing sitting on the ocean floor. turned out it was the skin of a rat. There were about a dozen of them in the water. Nasty little buggers...

from the Adventure mailbag...

Dear Morgan,

I feel that you always write about negative things over there. It sounds like you're having a terrible time! Can you tell us about some good things that happen to you or is everything as bad as you make it out to be?

K. from Houston

Well, K., the critical approach does happen to be part of the style that I am writing in, but i do understand and respect my listeners' requests, so I will write a more generic entry focusing on the good things that have happened to me recently. If you are a fan of the more usual biting criticism of Europe and/or other funny stories, stay tuned for Monday's edition.

The course has been really good for me so far; I have found that I really love teaching. It is an incredibly enriching experience where I feel that the knowledge that you are changing lives is worth so much more than the Christmas bonus that so many of my friends will be receiving... Although it would be nice to have a little something on top of my €800 a month for changing lives...

I've also met some very interesting people, and have entirely platonic friendships with girls for the first time since high school (with one notable exception in college). It's really nice, and I spent the day at the beach with three girls. One girl, the European who I argued with so vehemently last weekend, has turned out to be a really good friend, and we've chatted about everything from speaking three languages in the home (she did it) to why the ocean turns green before a storm.

She also has potentially changed my outlook with regards to deadlines: she believes that she'll take however much time she has to do an assignment. So extensions on homework (which we received) just means she'll be up late on Sunday night instead of thursday night. So she's decided just to not worry about stuff until it's basically due. We agreed that if something's due on Monday and we know it will take about 6 hours to do it and we try to do it on Saturday, we'll stare at the computer like monkeys all day long and still do it on sunday. I don't think i've met someone who has the same outlook as me as per deadlines as I do, and it's rather liberating.

I've sent off four resumes so far to different schools, but I think I'll end up picking a city and moving there and looking for a job. I'm thinking about Sevilla or Valencia, so if you have opinions let me know. I'm not interested in touristy, but I am interested in slightly modern amenities. Madrid and Barcelona are both out b/c of price, location and/or language spoken there.

Other than that, I finish this Saturday and then start a young learner's course on the following Monday. The school year starts basically at the beginning of October, so it's a little tight for me as far as windows...

I've realized that by resorting to humorless writing, I've effectively failed my mission, since my playwriting teacher at Dartmouth told me humor should only be used to further the plot development. Since I have neglected to further my plot with humor and have been forced to resort to lame prose, I have failed as a writer. I will try again on monday.