Scratch Cold

Rascafría. So we had a puente (long weekend) in the middle of July. We did a lot around the house, but we also found some time to drive into the mountains and spend an afternoon sunbathing and swimming. First we tried going to one river, but it was completely dry,

 so we ate a picnic lunch there before driving to Las Presillas de Rascafría (the little dams of scratch cold). Great name, huh? It's just a part of a river that leads to a lake in the mountains, near a town named "Rascafría." At some point, people decided to make little dams in the river in a particular area, to create natural swimming pools. It was full of people, but the water definitely lived up to its name. It was cold!!

Considering how hot Madrid has been, it was a welcome relief. Recently, I haven't been sleeping well because it has been so hot, even at night. We keep the windows open, a fan running, and I even put an ice pack on sometimes. I am counting down the days til I get to the US and some air-conditioning.
 Speaking of counting down days... I have officially given my notice at my job. Things are beginning to change for me here. Now that I have pareja de hecho with Joaquín, I don't have to worry about a visa anymore (well, at least for the next five years). That means I can get "real people" jobs. As much as I have loved working at the academy, I need to find something with a better schedule (not coming home at 9:30pm will be so great!) and that pays a little more. I will really miss my coworkers, but it's necessary to find something new. So far, I have a few options. I have interviewed and gotten jobs with two companies, one with which I would teach "company classes" at a company in the north a few hours a week, and the other with which I would teach "drama classes" as an extracurricular activity at primary schools in the north, also a few hours a week. I'm also interviewing with a couple more companies to see if I can fill up my weekly schedule. Either way, once I get back from the US in September, things will be a little different for me!
Now, what's next? What's coming in the future? It's all a little vague for me right now.
I know that I want to teach, and I'm pretty sure I'd like to teach English, but I need to start figuring out how I want to go about doing that. I could probably keep doing what I'm doing perpetually, but I'd rather start trying to focus on figuring out exactly how I want to work. For example, I'd prefer to teach in a school rather than for a company. So if I want to do that, I need to become qualified as a teacher here, and that means going back to school, working out how to get my credits from college transferred, improving my Spanish, and applying for programs. But all of that has to wait until I actually figure out what I want to do.
(What do you mean you haven't figured out what you want to do with your life yet, Katrina? You're 26!) What do you think I've been doing kicking around Spain? AVOIDING ADULTHOODDDD.
Anyway, the only other thing is to update you on the boyfriend and the cat. Joaquín has gotten a lovely job with a Spanish branch of an American company, and he sends me messages that his coworkers have sent the group in English which are hilarious and which prove English is soooo necessary in Spain right now. And Clio is getting bigger and hating this heat as much as we are. She still fits in the window, but I don't think she will much longer.

On that note, see (most of) you all stateside soon!

Update: I forgot, I'm also in a play! Well, we haven't started rehearsals yet, but I'm a very small part in Romeo and Juliet (and I'm also helping with costumes). Yay theatre!
Update Two: I have been informed that Rascafría does not in fact mean "scratch cold" but rather "super-duper cold cold."