Going for a Walk, and El Rastro

Today, I was going to try to go shopping to catch some of the sales as they start lowering prices ridiculously, but I found out I had to be back for dinner at 7:30. So, I decided to walk around my neighborhood instead, and it was definitely a good decision.

I walked up and down a few streets, made zig-zags across the blocks, and did a whole lot of window shopping. I found out there's lots of cool restaurants right around the corner, some cute little boutiques, a flower shop, and a whole lot of old-lady-clothing stores! (At least I know I won't be shopping around here very much.) And for some reason, walking around for an hour and a half gave me this really cool feeling of inner peace. Haha...not to sound like a hippie or anything, it was just very nice.

Up until now, I've been really nervous walking around, even if I have no reason to be on my guard. Our neighborhood is relatively safe; ie, you won't find a lot of pickpockets here, or so I've heard. But I just could not get myself to relax and stop to smell the roses. Finally today I got to, and it was the best feeling ever!

In other news, I went to Starbucks today because I was really craving coffee. It was like being in America for 2 minutes, except for when I was ordering. Oh yeah, and their Starbucks is HUGE!! It still manages to be packed every time I walk past it, though. I went early in the morning so almost nobody was there, but at any given time during the day, there's gotta be at least 40-50 students crowded around the tiny tables.

Oh, and I went to El Rastro on Sunday! El Rastro is a gigantic flea market that happens on Sundays. It was packed! There were so many people, it was hard to get to the booths sometimes. There were a few tourist-trap-like booths, but there were so many more cool ones. I didn't buy anything this week, but I'll definitely be returning next week to go on the hunt for a leather schoolbag! There were some antiques sections too, and they were selling a lot of cool stuff.

As a side note, almost every furniture salesman had a pocket trumpet for sale. They like to leave them out on tables for decoration, I think, although that is definitely not my type of decoration since I would most likely want to pick it up and play it instead of leaving it out. I think I saw at least 4 that day.

Today I started my Circuits Theory class and started talking to this Spanish girl named Maria. I told her I was from the United States, and she went, "oh! I lived in Kansas for awhile. It sucks..."I lol'd for real. Morris, Illinois probably isn't that different from Kansas, so I would have to agree with her observation.

We're having dinner soon, so that's all for now! I always seem to write these before meals, hmmm.

Tata for now!