Que vida la mia
So, it is Monday, and I have been in beautiful Spain since Friday. So far, everything has been incredible. I think the strangest thing is that I have never once felt uncomfortable, even though it is my first ´real´ experience abroad.
From the beginning...
Friday.
I arrived in Madrid on Friday morning at 745am. Javier was right there at the airport waiting for me. Alex was supposed to have arrived the night before me, but I´ll let her tell that tale of delays, cancellations, and engine troubles!! When she got in at around 2pm, Javier gave us the insider´s tour of Madrid and took us out for lunch (sheep cheese, calamari, and spanish omelettes). He helped us set up our cell phones as well, which was super helpful. Friday night, we went out to dinner with 4 of his friends (I think a few of them were @ers from Madrid). I´m trying to taste everything...Spaniards are very proud of their ham, something I will have to work hard to acquire a taste for!! We ate octopus, sardines, chorizo, and drank a lot of beer. Then, exhausted, we went out to a club with a few more of Javier´s friends to a place called Sol y Sombra (sun and shadow). It was unlike any bar in Wisconsin...much darker, louder, more EXPENSIVE! a drink cost 6 euro! Oh, and they played the Village People´s YMCA. We thought that was funny!
Saturday.
Jet lag set in. Woke up at 115pm...which is apparently completely normal for a weekend in Spain. We spent the entire day at a friend of Javier´s who was having a birthday party. It was a barbacoa (barbeque). Lamb, chicken, chorizo, ribs...so much meat!! It felt very strange to be at a table with 10 people talking and laughing in spanish. It is impossible for me to understand it when everyone is talking so fast, at once, and using slang etc. I felt really helpless. I also feel like I´ve lost a part of my personality because I don´t have the capability to make or understand jokes most of the time. Every night I go to bed completely exhausted because it takes so much concentration just to get through a meal! Saturday night, I watched the Sevilla-Gitafe soccer game. Sevilla won...a player had to get rushed to the hospital because he swallowed his tongue! Rounding out the evening was more barbacoa, drinks, and spanish BIRTHDAY CAKE!
Sunday.
Javier had to study all day because he has some big exams coming up, so Alex and I explored the city. We got on the Metro and took it to el paseo del Prado. We vistited the Royal Botanical Gardens, which were less than spectacular because it´s not the right season I guess. Then we went to el Prado, the museum. The exhibition there right now is an artist from Belgium, Patinir...the father of landscapes. Really cool stuff. We wanted to find a cute little outdoor cafe to eat tapas, and we actually ran into some of the people that Alex got stuck in London with! So we joined them for some cod...and more beer. (I need to find a gym...pronto! haha) Then we got ourselves lost in the streets of Madrid...stumbled upon some gelato and finally made our way to el Corte Ingles for some shopping. Headed back to Javier´s and met up with a bunch of his friends again for some tapas at a local terrace.
Monday.
At 9am Alex and I hopped on a bus which I can only title as When Body Odor Does Spain. It was 90 degrees in the bus and I think we were surrounded by 15 men that hadn´t showered in weeks. It smelled so bad you could taste it. There was one man that was harrassing the girl that sat in front of us. He kept walking past her, hovering over her and tickling her feet when they fell over the edge. He even tried to sit down by her a couple times. It was sufficiently awkward. I´m definitely glad he left us alone. 6 hours later, we arrived in Sevilla. An @er from Sevilla and his girlfriend picked us up from the bus station and dropped Alex off at her hotel for her orientation. then they drove me to my hostel to drop off my bags. We were going to go out around Sevilla, but Raquel backed her car into a pole and was really upset about it, so they turned around and dropped me off back at the hostel and said they´d call me tomorrow. This is after he spent about an hour telling me all of the clubs to go to, how to ride the bus, where to buy a bike, where to eat, where a waterpark and the soccer fields are etc.
Let me just say that I LOVE AIESEC. This whole experience is going to be so much better because of all of these connections. Everyone is so helpful. Javier couldn´t have been a better host-it was amazing. I can´t wait to see him again in September for the Incubus concert!!
I´ll try to keep these entries shorter, I just have a lot to say right now!
Que empiece la aventura!!!!!!!
