cambios

New place, new blog.

Check out cassidyisinthestates.blogspot.com .

Thanks for reading!

Acabo de...I mean, I just had this dream...

So. I'm starting to have epic dreams again.

A few nights ago, I was in the states and I almost missed a train back to Spain. And I hadn't packed at all. Exactly like the recurring dream I had in the fall.

Just woke up from a dream that was very blatantly about how I am not looking forward to going home because I expect to miss Spain and the Erasmus life terribly. I kept trying to speak in Spanish to everyone. Have to find a way to speak Spanish daily in Columbia! I really hope I get the Adelante (Latin American community) beat for the Missourian.

There were also performing orca & belgua whales...but I don't think that meant anything. They were just sweet.

A conclusion

I am growing so much here in Madrid. Florian told me recently that I am an adult. And I realized I am an adult. I am learning that things can be done differently than I was taught. For example, over-easy eggs. We always scrambled them growing up. I LOVE over-easy eggs.

Check out this lady. She seems to be thinking for herself, which is inspiring to me right now. She's my sister's age also, which is pretty cool and makes me feel kind of old and unaccomplished. Ha!

Just whisper sweet (past perfect) nothings into my ear...

Finally finished signing up for classes today. I signed up for an introductory German class. I am craving a third language. I then was immediately gripped by the senselessness of that act. If I am going to graduate from MU anytime in the near future with a double major, I really should take classes that give me credit for at least one of my majors. I double checked, and wouldn't you know it, the Spanish class I needed had opened up. I took the last spot and dropped the German class. Maybe in the spring. I want to speak it so badly!

Florian and I bought our tickets to Frankfurt the other day. From a German website. I hate having that wall up. I hate not understanding. But this feeling isn't about being lost in the dark. On the contrary, when I learn a word in another language, when I learn how to pronounce a group of letters or how to conjugate a verb, I get this rush through my body. Languages just turn me on.

Así, gute nacht a todos. I'm going to fall asleep to The Sound of Music (since Grey's won't be online until tomorrow) and dream happy little dreams about the apple muffins Anna made tonight. Sweet dreams to you too!

Tag!

My dear friend Amanda tagged me on her blog, Hoi Polloi, so hear are some fun facts about Cassidy Diane Shearrer. The rules:

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. If I could be a superhero, my power would be communication. If I could live forever, I would learn every language in the world. I like to talk.
2. I love God and believe the Bible. I've also been rejected by Christian friends and disgusted by evangelists. Living in Europe amidst the Catholic church history makes me queasy. My closest friends don't share my beliefs but also never judge me. The mistakes of the church make me very sad.
3. Creating is my favorite thing to do by myself. Having left behind my sewing machine and film camera in the states, I've been really into cooking here. Learned how to make my own pizza crust yesterday!
4. I have an unhealthy attachement to my laptop. Celebrity gossip sites, illegally downloaded TV shows & facebook are my biggest vices right now. The celebrity obsession began when Mary-Kate Olsen started dressing weird-people.com was a fashion consultation site for me. Now the Olsens have better security and my taste for fashion has devolved into perezhilton.com.
5. Living in a this new culture has made vegetarian resturants the freaking mecca of all establishments. Found one last week in La Latina, Viva la Vida. Holy scheiße.
6. I want to live in a big city, but I really don't want to be a suit. I would be content to serve coffee for the rest of my life.
7. I always wanted to be in the boy scouts. I am still angry that I'm not an expert fire builder. Survival stories were my favorite as a kid! I wish I could say with 100% certainty that I could make it on one of those deserted islands (unfortunately, I am pretty sure they've all been bought up, so I may never get a chance to prove myself).

Though I barely know 7 people with blogs, I will tag Anna, David, Marta, La Revolutonista, and Cafe Con Soja.

Charity

Madrid has quite the homeless population. After reading Irresistible Revolution this fall, sharing makes more sense. I really want to live a life that has community and giving at its core.

Which is great and all...except when I start giving away things that don't belong to me. Florian's food. Florian's money. Florian's sweet comic book in Spanish that we found sitting outside my apartment. And the latest:

Okay, clearly not a tragic loss. First of all, the front wheel was busted. Secondly, well, Florian is a fully grown man.

The convenience store by his apartment is run by an Asian family, like most of the 'alimentaciones'(or 'chinos') in Madrid. Florian tried to ride the bike from the dumpster to the chino. Hilarious!

It was around midnight, but the Asian kids were still up, helping their mom run the store. We bought what we needed at stepped back outside to get the bike and go home. The kids followed us out. The little girl was eying the bike-I don't think she even noticed we were there. I opened my mouth and offered the bike to the girl. She didn't have a clue what I was saying, but her brother immediately said "Sí" and she hopped on.

You should have seen her face! So cute! Hopefully Florian will survive.

Dinner party, photos & vegan possibilities?

Last night Anna made the most amazing Jamaican food for all of our friends (turns out we have quite a few!). It was a wonderful community celebration-everyone chipped in with the cooking and helped us with the food costs. We had a genuinely great time. I was exhausted for most of it, and at one point sitting on the couch next to Florian, I stuck my ear into each conversation in the room and realized that I have found a truly incredible group of people. I am so happy to be sharing my life with all of them right now!
Mati and Pablo taught us all the Argentinian national anthem, Patrick brought German beer for Florian, and Anna's jerk chicken sauce is on my list of favorite foods now.

In other news, I think I may become a vegan. Florian and I had an interesting conversation about whether or not to eat animals the other day, and it got me thinking. I believe God put animals on this earth for us to eat but I also see our unsustainable agricultural practices destroying the earth.
Now, I have only been seriously considering this for a few hours, so feel free to give me some advice. So far I've realized I'm going to miss scrambled eggs, Flat Branch burgers and salmon. Currently trying to figure out how bad the over-fishing problem really is. My exceptions would be: If you cook it for me, I'll eat it. Because over all, I still value people over animals (which I realized is in direct conflict with most vegan beliefs...). Second exception would be any free-range produce, that is, food from animals raised in a sustainable manner. I don't want to be a hypocrite about my beliefs, and this is definitely an area in my life where I feel I can be hypocritical (i.e. the McDonald's french fries I ate in Venice).

Finally, the photos you have all be waiting for:








1. Me and the hermanos in Andalucía! 2. Floating kid head! 3. It was rainy and cold. We were tired from all the relaxing in Spain. But whatever! Paris was amazing! 4. Those amazing friends I was telling you about. By this point in my 3 week long travels, I was exhausted, homesick and coughing a lot. They managed to put up with me and I love them for it!

Possibility

I have been thinking a lot about community lately. Being the liberal peace-loving hippie I am, community means a lot to me. I left my strong community in downtown Columbia to live abroad this year and sometimes I wonder why I gave up that family. What I didn't anticipate was what my community would look like in Madrid. I knew I would have one, but I expected it to focus around a café like my community in Columbia did. I expected it to be made up of madrileños and Spanish students.

Instead I find myself in a community of Erasmus students from all over Europe and our meeting place changes every night. I went out for a drink tonight with one of the first people I got to know in Madrid. Giovanni, this Italian guy that I thought looked so cool with his Ray-Bans. He has lived in several places and told me tonight about how he has the travel bug and wants to leave Madrid.

I knew living here would change me, but I didn't anticipate finding this international community. Tonight Giovanni and I marveled over how unique it was to have a community that isn't defined by a place. In fact, the opposite: The international community is defined by travel and being in a place that is strange to you.

The verdict is still out on whether or not I will catch the travel bug and spend my years bartending in foreign languages. But it is a romantic idea. Though I could pass my years on the corner of 9th and Cherry very peacefully, I might learn Italian and French and live in Argentina photographing for a magazine or in Uganda working in an Irish pub.

A book of one's own

After I was turned away from the tiny library in Toledo for lack of pasaporte, I found myself in tears over a bilingual book of poetry by Billy Collins in a bookstore near my apartment.

And after losing myself to my favorite poet for two blocks, I have rationalized the 11 euros I charged and I'm not going to think about how few coins I have in my pocket now.