Soy el spanish master!

We got our Spanish test results on Saturday morning, and I got 93%! Woo hoo! Our whole group did well enough to go on to the next level, which we started immediately after receiving our test results.

After class we played soccer for a couple of hours, which will hopefully be a weekly occurrance. This week we had 35 players, rather than 28, so we had 5 teams and had to rotate in and out. I think most of us didn't mind a little rest from time to time. I meant to take a nap after soccer on Saturday, but I just didn't seem to be able to make it happen. I studied for a little while and next thing I knew, people were over at our house and we were having a barbecue on the roof. From there, we went to Marco's second home, Danzatoria, and I don't think anyone was expecting the night we ended up having.

Not only were there dozens of IESE students there, no one could stop dancing. Usually people split off or go outside for a while, or get bored of dancing and sit down. But Saturday night was nonstop. We stayed at Danzatoria until it closed at 3am (at which time I really should have gone home to bed) and then walked up the hill to Mirablau, which stays open until 8 in the morning. Good thing I had my flip flops stashed in my bag, because walking up a steep hill in heels is no way to travel. At Mirablau (with heels back on of course!) the dancing continued, and we found out that one student, Benjamin from France, only APPEARS to be dorky. In reality he is lord of the dancefloor and was flinging and twirling girls around, while we all could only look on, open-mouthed, and clap and dance around him. I'll have to get a video of it next time, because I'm still not sure I believe it really happened.

I finally forced myself to go home around 5:30, but I couldn't find a cab, so I walked from Mirablau (at the top of Tibidabo) all the way home. The flip flops really got a workout Saturday night. George caught up with me on the last block, having taken a cab 1/2 an hour after Ieft. I fell asleep at 6am, and seemingly 1 second later, at 7:30, my alarm went off and I had to get up. Threw on my running clothes and met Edi on the corner and next thing I knew, I was sleeping in the passenger seat while we drove to a 5K race. I was very grumpy with myself for having agreed to do this race, but I really couldn't get out of it since I'd finked out last weekend. Another student, Ian, took photos of me zonked out in the car, which I'll have to get a hold of and post.

We arrived at the race about 45 minutes later and Edi said, "Noelle do you want to stay here and sleep or come and race?" and I grumpily said I'd race. Hmph. There were a handful of IESE students there, and Edi's friends from the last race, Pedro and Maria, and everyone was very entertained by my exhaustion as we sat in a little cafe and waited for the race to start. I thought it started at 9, but it didn't start till 10:30 (!!!!) so I could've slept at least another hour! Darn Edi and his promptness. I gradually started to wake up as we all sat around and by 10:15 it was finally warm out (it was very cold when we arrived at the race site) and we started to get ready for the run.

As we waited for the gun to go off, Edi and I realized that I'd probably had more than enough exercise in the past 12 hours... from 2 hours of soccer, 6 hours of dancing, walking all the way home, and now a race. But next thing I knew we were running up a hill (yes, the course also had to be very HILLY - yuck) and I passed the next 22 minutes mostly thinking, "Only (blank) minutes left!" depending on how long I'd been running. I finished faster than I thought... I certainly didn't think I'd do 7 1/2 minute mile splits.

Half an hour after the race, the results were posted and, suprise of the weekend:

Third place! Hahahahaha.