I found paper towels

I've spent quite a bit of time the last few days trying to find familiar items in the stores here, which isn't quite as easy as you might expect. Today I finally found paper towels, for example. They're hard to spot because the rolls are the same width as the toilet paper and exactly twice as high. So, you can't just eyeball the package; you actually have to read it and look for "rollos de concina" ("kitchen rolls").

That's just one example of the various things I've been looking for. I'm still having trouble finding spices, but a friend here tipped me off to where I might find them.

I've been using the subway to get around the city. It's clean and easy to use. There are parts of the city you can't get to, but I probably won't have reason to go to most of them. I haven't yet attempted to the trains or buses. The buses will take you anywhere, but there aren't any maps or timetables. Of course, they do have a fixed route, but it's a bit of a challenge to figure out which bus to take even with the map book I bought.

I haven't seen a cockroach in two days, but I'm sure they're still there. I bought some roach traps (called Cucatrap, as in cucaracha) and put them in the kitchen and the bathroom. That should help.

Tomorrow morning I start Spanish conversation classes, which I plan to take for 4 weeks. Hopefully at that point I'll be ready to go into the "real world" and work at a job. So far I have only used my Spanish a few times. A couple times someone has approached me to ask me directions, so I guess I don't look that foreign.