La Papelera

Is a trashcan.... (literal translation is "wastebasket") you know...like this:

Nothing really exciting.  Nothing like, say, this one:

This was Sunday morning, after Murcia's roughest night of the week.  On Sunday at about 5am the city is A WRECK.  But this has to be exceptionally bad.  It was pretty funny to be walking by and stop and go, "Wait, what was that??"

My theory: cigarette.  Someone wasn't thinking and probably put a lit cigarette in the trash.  That is actually illegal here.  They prefer you to throw them on the ground.  Welcome to Spain. :D

¡Avanzada!

Well ladies and gentleman, it has been a little over 6 months now and I think I feel comfortable saying that I have advanced past intermediate and into Advanced with my level of Spanish.

I have spent the last 3 days with a friend of mine, named Elise.

She's a French auxiliar that works in the Canary Islands.  We met in Madrid at the orientation 5 to 6 months ago.  For Semana Santa (which I'll talk more about later) we traveled to Málaga and Sevilla to check out all the action.  But what's truly awesome about this friendship, is that I don't know any French and she doesn't know much English.  We have to speak Spanish to communicate.

Noooo problem. :)  This American has got Spanish in the bag!  Okay, okay, not quite.  I do not know every word but I can communicate without a problem.  I'm no longer scared to talk to just anyone, I don't stumble and get nervous over my words and when I don't know the word, I use circumlocution.

Now all I need to do is get Couchsurfing to add the level "Advanced" in between Intermediate and Expert.