Why life seems slow

An introduction: I am not as depressed as this blog makes me seem, forgive me for this has become my outlet for cultural frustrations.

I tend to be slightly pesimistic in Madrid, with the assumption that if I expect the worst, I'll usually be pleasantly surprised. So far, this attitude has helped me avoid all kinds of despair.
I'm sitting a library at my university, thankful for a silence I haven´t found anywhere else in the city. In front of me is a wonderfully old smelling book on Cervantes. It is one of the recommended books for my class on Cervantes-one of the few published in NYC.
In this library you have to request the book and the librarian hands your handwritten request to some mysterious man or woman in the back who retrieves the book for you. I requested this particular book because it is written in English and I was pretty sure I´d be able to take it home with me.
"Pretty sure" means "I hope" in Spain.
The librarian told me to wait for 15 minutes. I waited for 25, read a chapter of Harry Potter in Spanish and cried as Harry saw his parents for the first time in the mirror. Finally I realized I probably had to go up and ask about the book. The first librarian said something to me that I didn´t understand and moved on to the next patron. In this scenario, I assumed the best and threw a helpless glance to the second librarian.
She consulted the man in the back and brought me my book.
I stumbled in Spanish, asking if I could take the book home with me and then tried to use my public library card instead of my university library card, but eventually I found myself here, seated in a far corner with the book I chose to read on the life of Cervantes. It is a joy in any country to sit down quietly and open a book.
Unfortunately for me, no level of Spanish or English language proficiency will help me read a 183 page bibliography of the works of Cervantes.
God said something about finding joy in our suffering. Tomorrow I'm going to find joy in a biography on Cervantes, but for today I'm just going to read more Harry Potter.