about that "working" thing

It´s been a week +/- at the office, so far we´ve had 2 parties, 2 days leaving at 3, leaving to get breakfast everyday at 1030 and basically, me reading and researching thru more PDF articles than i ever thought i would. Allow me to explain:

My schedule is the following, get to work by 9, go out to breakfast (or break in the office) from 10:30-11:30, lunch (either out or in the office) from 2-3:30, leave work at 6/6:30. not so bad ehh?

Essentially, I spend my days researching youth integration and inter-cultural co-existance, with the ultimate goal of assessing recent immigrant/spanish youth assimilation programs, i.e. evaluate their effectiveness, successes, flaws, etc. But right now, we´re just starting the project, so my day is staring at the screen, google-academic-ing, and reading PDF´s from a monitor (not overlly exciting).

But i can´t hate because the project is interesting, and we are just starting, afterall...and, shit, i´m in Spain...

Like i said earlier, last week, we had 2 office parties, the one held on friday (the day the office closes early) was to celebrate 4 birthdays and 1 going-away. Anyway, there was an entire buffet of foods, from every ethnicity EVER (portugese, argentinian, morraccan, etc.). I brought in some American cookies that were supposed to be an office gift. Anyway, after everybody´s been eating for an hour, we sing happy birthday in 4 languages in the room where were supposed to hold meetings. Then Ángeles, this crazy little Andalusian, grabs Pancho and starts a psuedo dance party in the cooridoor to "Esa hombre" (a recent spanish pop song). So, i´m basically, dying from laughter and disbelief, and explain that these kind of things never happen in US offices, it was a fun, but overall, i´m working in a very "different" office environment.

(Of course i should have realized this my first day, because i show up in a skirt and button up shirt, the guy following me -- Luis, who works here -- comes in with jeans, flip flops and a black wife beater...)

Anyway, this weekend I´m off to Sevilla to hang out with Alex, and meet his parents (dun dun duuuun), we´ll see how that one goes...

Hope everybody´s doing well, wish you guys were here,

Besos always,
e