Arcos de La Frontera

I don't like to think that I have a pessimistic attitude or that I think  negatively but I haven't been having the best time here in Spain.  Don't get me wrong, there have been amazing moments, but all the little stupid crap is making those amazing moments feel small.  It started the first week I got here, one thing on top of another.  Little things, like bug bites, getting drenched by random rain storms, leaking boots, to bigger things like bladder infections, colds, being demoted (read below)....crap just has just been piling up and piling up to one big fat pile of pissing me off.  Last week was the cherry on the top.  

As I was leaving class on Wednesday, my teachers asked me to come talk to them.  They asked if I wanted to move down to the lower class.  After six weeks of studying, I have been demoted.  I told them this the second week I was there, that I had a horrible time understanding and that when everyone laughs in class, I didn't get the joke because I understood nothing the teacher was saying.  They told me to stick it out.... 6 weeks later, they finally see how frustrated I am getting in class and are putting me down to the higher level of beginner, one level down from lower intermediate.  Since a lot of students have gone home, the beginner class now only has 4 other students, some have been there for months, some for weeks, so the teachers tried to tell me it wasn't much different than the class I was in, but my pride has been bruised.  Quite honestly, I felt like quitting.  Here I am trying to hard to learn this language and instead of moving forward, I am moving backward.  So yes I almost quit.  I cried and cried and felt discouraged and frustrated and cursed all Spanish Gods to take their language and stick it where the sun doesn't shine.  But I didn't quit... I just felt like poop the remainder of the day.  

That same day Marcos and I went to Arcos de la Frontera.  It's a gorgeous white town (all white buildings) and it was a nice breath of fresh air.  Finally, something fun, not stressful, happy, go lucky!!!!  We stayed at his oldest sister's house, Isabel and her husband, Miguel.  They are optometrists and have a little shop down the street from where they live..  They have three very cute boys, who practice their English with me.  Isabel reminds me of me. She is very tidy.  For example, she has organized all her sons toys by super heroes or dinosaurs :)  I like her. . . it was fun trying to communicate.  But of course, my bad luck wasn't over.  

We went out for drinks, which was tons of fun.... tapa bar after tapa bar!  I took so many pictures on my iphone and was so excited to blog about it all to show you what the food was like, etc etc...when I reached into my purse to take another picture, and low and behold, my phone was gone.  I had remembered using it less than 5 minutes earlier to look up a verb but it was just gone.  Did I not put it back in my purse, or did I and it not go in and instead fall on the ground?  I looked in my pockets, on the floor, all around me, no where to be found.  My only guess is that it fell out of my bag and on the floor and some dishonest asshole picked it up and just walked off with it or someone saw me put it in my bag and reached in it and took it.  I was so angry.  I made Marcos ask every person around us, please, have you seen a phone?  But it was gone.  I was in tears.  Why, seriously?  Is this a lesson from God saying "humble yourself woman, be happy for the small things?"  That is what it felt like and maybe that is what it was, but could I please just have 24 hours without something stupid happening to me!?!  Please, pretty please, with sugar on top!