Eve-of-Exam Update

Tomorrow morning at 10 I´ll be taking the test to evaluate how well I´ve absorbed the classroom work of the past three weeks. That´s mildly nervewracking, but not extremely so. I feel fairly comfortable with the assortment of grammar and vocabulary lessons we´ve been doing. The only thing uncomfortable right now is the weather. It was genuinely cold for the first time this morning, and it´s not dissipating with the arrival of the sun this afternoon. The past few nights of news have been full of images from northern Spain, where about a half-meter of snow has fallen in the past two days. There was a funny special report last night in which a reporter snowshoed through a small mountain town with his cameraman to interview snowbound spaniards. I think that makes him the rough equivalent of the "journalists" on CNN & the Fox Noise Channel whose job it is to hold a microphone while being waterboarded, or tazed, or demonstrating a new crotch-kicking machine someone has invented.
Another uncomfortable, ongoing condition is my laptop envy. Not having my computer means I end up spending ages on various public machines, reading the news and blogs and posting here and checking email. I´ve been sitting on one of the four AIFS office machines for the better part of an hour, with people waiting for a free keyboard. More than that, I´m very reluctant to either upload pictures to the web or take music from other people on the trip for fear that I may lose files and not have any backup for them. Will the first person to visit me please bring me my Gateway? Some sort of lavish special prize for whoever can make it magically appear in my lap.
The upsides of not having it are easy to see as well-- the several free hours I have each day are rapidly becoming tiresome, and without free internet entrancement as an option I´m simply going to have to go out and meet real people. The prospect of intercambios with spaniards is enticing, but I still haven´t worked up the nerve to call anyone. That will be easier after the orientation classes have ended. Speaking of which....here´s a (very) rough itinerary (all of which subject to change) for my week-long break starting next Tuesday:
10am busride to Madrid, arriving ca. 3pm.
1 day/2 nights of straight awesome, Madrid style, including Prado, but otherwise devoid of sobriety.
Morning flight to Prague, where I´m staying in a hostel for 5 nights with Clare and a few other heads. Hopefully this includes Kafka museum, many a Cathedral, many a cheap liter of beer, and the purchase of a pair of warm gloves since I am drastically underprepared for the weather in the Czech Republic.
Flight back to Madrid on the sixth. Five hour busride back to G. Sleep. Classes.

I love europe.