I faded yesterday in the middle of writing about how the current ambassador is Texan.

Today there was a walking tour from the Prado Museum to the Palacio Real (royal palace for those of you who don't speak Spanish.) Orientation is pretty much over, and I haven't found a place to live yet. I saw the most awful place yesterday; it had low ceilings, was painted an awful shade of blue, had a really big television and a pile of video games in the living room, and a pile of dirty dishes in the kitchen. And it was expensive. And in a crummy neighborhood.

I'd be perfectly fine with a great apartment in a crummy neighborhood, or a crummy apartment in a great neighborhood. I think.

At some point yesterday, when I was walking around neighborhoods looking (just looking), there was an Egyptian café, so I stopped in and asked if they knew anyone who knew anyone who had a place to rent. I'm going back there today to meet up with "Rafa," who's the former landlord of one of them, and who supposedly has an entire apartment building. The son of a friend of a friend of my mom's is trying to help me find a place, too. In short, I don't know if anything'll come through.

So, it's later now, and I went back to the Egyptian café, and Rafa was quite nice and apparently owns a building with quite a few apartments, but they're all being renovated, and the earliest anything would be available is the end of the month. I also went to see a real estate agent for a rental, and saw a really cute attic apartment that was both unfurnished and expensive (but cute.) The only problem is that I'm only going to be around for a couple of months.

I also changed my evening plans to go see a place that I'd gotten a little pull-tab for; now I know that I should ask who lives somewhere before trekking half an hour to see a room. There was an Ecuadorian family with a little girl, who was maybe four. There were lots of toys around. There was no toilet paper in the bathroom, and the room had an awful bunk bed in which the top bunk was at a strange height; the person in the bottom bunk could not possibly have been able to sit up. I should have just gone out with the other grad students who are heading off to all parts of Spain tomorrow. But I didn't. And I still don't know where I'm going to end up living.

Ack.