Spur of the moment blog post! Microonda edition

So, it is midterms week, as exemplified by my surplus of blog posts and excessive movie watching. But I do actually have reason to be writing right now.

Lately, during dinner, we have been experiencing power outages. It is only our apartment, and Paloma goes and futzes with the fuse box, and eventually she works it out so that the lights come back on. Last night, Paloma worked late, and Jade and I ate dinner on our own and then went into our respective rooms. All of a sudden, the power went out. Jade freaked, because apparently she is afraid of the dark, and I went to fix the problem (with Jade clinging to me and yelling about my flashlight app). It was somewhat comical, and I kept hitting the switches and alternating which were up and which were down. I could only get the lights in the main part of the house and our bedrooms to work, while all the lights and electricity in the bathroom and kitchen would not come back on. We settled for light in our rooms and wifi, and resolved to not worry about the kitchen/bathroom wing of the apartment.

Finally, a couple hours later, Paloma came home and I attempted to explain to her that the power had gone out and we were unable to get the kitchen and bathroom lights to work. She tried to fix it, went to change a light bulb (though she realized after that the electricity was the problem and not the light bulbs . Eventually she called her mother, and they tried to solve the problem together. The lights seemed to be working, and I figured all was well. That is until this morning when I went to make breakfast. The toaster was working and the lights were working, but when I went to plug in the microwave all of the power in the whole apartment went out. So there was the problem.

I was able to get the power back on in the whole apartment, and just skipped the tea since the microwave was no longer available. I went to class, and then to the gym, and returned home exhausted and ready to have a quick lunch and then study. That is when Paloma asked me if I could help her change out the microwave and explained that the microwave was the cause of the electrical problems. I happily agreed to help her, but when I went to move the old microwave, she stopped me and said that we had to go get the new one first. This resulted in an hour long excursion which included walking to the further metro station, taking the metro one stop, buying a microwave, lugging it to a cafe (where she had a beer and smoked two cigarettes and bought me a glass of wine), and then dragging it back home the same way we had come, except that we walked two blocks out of the way for her to buy beer and cigarettes.

It was an exhausting trip, and a bigger investment of time and energy than I had prepared for when I thought all I had to do was bring the old microwave to a dumpster. That's what I get for not speaking Spanish, I guess. Despite this fact, Paloma talks ceaselessly and while she is nice, and clearly cares for us, it has become infuriating. I mostly just nod and try to smile, but I am growing increasingly less tolerant.

This is the view out my window. Not super interesting, but if you look at the courtyard in the center of the picture you can see a little black and white dot. That is the cat which cries outside our window everyday and into the night. 

Damn cat. It really howls, and that would be bad enough, but Paloma feels the need to imitate it every time we mention how annoying it is which, believe it or not, is as annoying as the actual miserable animal. 

Two more days, and then I will be headed to Lisbon for a much needed break from my host mother and her apartment.