Bob Marley

Carnaval takes place 40 days before Easter every year. In some parts of Spain they go all out - parades, fiestas in the street, music, costumes, the works. And, similar to Halloween, everyone dresses up. That's why Lili invited me to her house after school para comer. After we ate, she said she would show me a shop where I could get a costume for this weekend. She and her best friend are going as Mario and Luigi. I figured I would look for something a little less conspicuous, like a mouse. Any way, we were just about to go when Carmen called. After a minute or so Lili hung up and said we would leave in five minutes. I changed out of my skirt and into my sweatpants because it had started to snow. Lili told me to leave my stuff and then grabbed my arm and said we were off to find a puppy. Confused, I thought to myself, Just go with it.

When we arrived at Carmen's door, Lili was bouncing with excitement. As we climbed the stairs she explained to me in English, "Alberto is our best friend. It is his birthday, so we are giving him a puppy! We have to go the the perrera." When I asked her what a perrera was, she replied, "a dog supermarket." I got it.

We got to the kennel, but it was closed. So they called the owner of a litter advertised online. He met us an hour later, outside of a supermarket no less. With him, he brought two tiny black cocker-spaniels. They were probably two of the most adorable dogs I'd ever seen. They picked one, paid the man, and then we went back to Carmen's house. We were only there a few minutes before everyone got ready to head over to Alberto's house to bring him his surprise, which, in the meantime, had been named Bob Marley.

On our way out, I asked Lili if we had time to go back to her house to grab my back pack. "Ayy, no, no tenemos tiempo!" she replied. It looked like I wouldn't be able to find a costume today after all. I told her Carlos could pick me up in about 10 minutes, and that she should just bring my back pack to school tomorrow. We stepped outside and she, Bob Marley in hand, pointed me in the direction of the building where Carlos told me he would wait. "Dame un besito," she said, and she kissed my cheek and followed the rest of the group to Alberto's house.

A few minutes later, Carlos pulled up. I jumped in the front seat. After we drove for a minute he asked me where my skirt was. I told him I forgot it. In Spanish, he replied, "Must have been some party," and laughed at me the whole way home.

The next morning I went to school in sweatpants. After explaining a few times why I wasn't wearing my skirt, I was relieved when Lili finally showed up. She put my bag down, exclaiming, "que pesada!" and I grabbed my skirt to change into before my first class, English.

"I don now what the raisin jou all have a such a bad grades is. Is cause jou never stahdy!"

This is what our English teacher said before she began to read off everyone's grade. "Alberto, Gonzalo, all correct. Caroline - on the listening you missed one." What? No. I speak English much better than her. She must have made a mistake. And all of a sudden, I was more the arrogant American than I had ever been before. I argued with her, saying that the word to describe the men hiding in the dark room was obviously "anxious" as opposed to her answer, "relaxed"; but to no avail.

In the end I let it be, comforted by the fact that I was the only one in class who could decipher the lyrics to Just Walk Away by Celine Dion. Just as I began to calm down, Dona Marta announced that it should be easy to understand Celine Dion, especially because she's from Canada and not the United States. I wondered if she didn't mean to offend me by insinuating that Can-eh-dians speak English better than Americans. And this from a teacher wearing leather pants.

Anyway, as they say here, no pasa nada. Whatever. I've got more important things to worry about, like soccer.