How to fail at being a Spaniard.

My roommate and I decided to take it upon ourselves to go out this past weekend.

How to fail at being a Spaniard:
1. After not hearing from your friends, you and roommate go out at 11 PM. Housekeeper and her friends says have fun and see you in the morning.
2. Walk to Triana, located on the other side of the river. Try not to get run over by cars (At this time, it is 11:20)
3. Go to the bar that you guys went to the first Friday you were here. (By now, it is 11:25)
4. Realize you don't want to pay a 25 euro cover charge and go find somewhere else. (11:26)
5. Pick a place you want to go. We chose Calle Betis. (11:28)
6. Walk around wondering where the hell Calle Betis is. (11:29)
7. Give up and walk into Irish pub. (11:24)
8. Look at beer menu in Irish pub and freak and leave. (11:30:30)
9. Walk around the corner and realize you're in Calle Betis! (11:31)
10. Find Big Ben (Patrons are international students mostly) (11:35)
11. Order drinks. I got a tinto (half-red wine and half fanta) and roommate ordered beer. (11:36)
12. Sit at bar and guzzle drink down like you've been wandering through the desert for 40 days. (11:37)
13. Overhear Red Hot Chili Peppers in bar and make disgusted face to roommate. (11:42)
14. Look around bar to see if anybody else you might recognize is there (11:44)
15. Wait for roommate to finish beer while contemplating whether or not to order another tinto. (11:45)
16. Check mobile and realize you've gotten several irrelevant texts from friends back home on the other side of the world (11:46)
17. Roommate finishes beer and leave bar to find somewhere else. (11:50)
18. Declare that there's nothing else to do and you decide to call it a night. (12:02)
19. Decide to take a cab home due to roommate's sore feet and the fact that you've neglected to take a cardigan (stupid idea). Roommate orders you to negotiate price before jumping into cab, despite the fact that she has taken more college Spanish than you have. (12:04)
20. Have exchange with cab driver, negotiating cab ride back home to 6 euros and get in. (12:05)
21. Get home at 12:08
22. Struggle with door lock and get buzzed in by someone else who lives in the building and go inside at 12:10.
23. Drink 2 Cuba Libres (Rum and coke) in a can (I bought them both. Yuck) and pass out (due to immense embarassment that you can't do it like Spaniards do, not due to alcohol) while watching Melodifestivalen 2007.

We'll try again next weekend.

Quiero la máquina del tiempo

Plaza de España - this thing is around the corner from my house!

Okay, so I've been here since the 16th and this city is like a big small town. Everybody walks everywhere.

Wednesday, I got to my home around 5 AM and just chilled there after the 2 and a half hour train ride from Madrid. My roommate got in around 9 PM and we were both exhausted and went to bed, intending to get up early for orientation the next day.

Thursday, we left our house at 9 AM for a 10 AM orientation, bringing our laptops. Guess what? We got LOST. We wandered around for about an hour and a half asking where school was. And we got in at 10:30. What made it worse? It wasn't even orientation day for us. Hahaha.

Friday, was actual orientation day for us and I finalized out my classes. Also, there was a welcome party for us students at a bar across town. We walked over like a group of 30 girls and one guy (poor guy) and proceeded to drink. It was a free party, two free drinks, so why not, right? And we had some tapas which was yummy. Went home around 2.

Saturday, went around and saw Plaza de España.

Sunday, vegged out.

Monday, started classes with Politics and Intensive Spanish. Pretty chill.

Tuesday, Ethics and Intensive Spanish. Went out for a drink with Megan, Kylie and Catherine.

Wednesday, Politics was cancelled and just had intensive Spanish.

Thursday, ethics and intensive Spanish.

Today, no classes, but I need internet!

Okay, I better go home for lunch (everything shuts down for lunch cos everyone goes home to eat with their families and have siesta!).

Must try to find a way out when everything shuts down in March!

Will be back Monday to write more! :D

I Declaration Emergency!

I've been in Spain since Monday, first with MJ and her family for two days and now I'm in Sevilla with my host family.

The two days I was in Madrid was so awesome. MJ and I went out Monday night, just wandering around and taking pictures. The second day, she had classes and I didn't mind just staying at her house and relaxing before heading down to Sevilla. Her mom is such a great cook and it was wonderful to have home-cooked meals after traveling for so long. I never had salad with fried bread-crutons before but yum yum yum. Mmm.

Okay, I obviously need to learn Spanish quickly because I couldn't talk to MJ's mom in Spanish (her mom doesn't speak much english and I wasn't going to ask her to speak english to me. That's rude!). So in an effort, Tuesday at lunch, I tried to speak some Spanish and... desperately asked her mom if she could speak French.

I took the train down to Sevilla on Wednesday. MJ's mom packed me a sandwich which was delish and MJ and I worked our way to the train station.

I felt like Xavier in L'Auberge Espagnole carrying all my stuff. Got a cab and went straight to homestay.

Anyway, update later but here's some pics from Madrid last week!


My friend Maria in Plaza Mayor


Me in Plaza Mayor


Km. 0. The center of Spain!


Me and the symbol of Madrid


The post office.


La catedral de la Almudena


Maria!


Sevilla Santa Justa from the train.

Pre-Departure Jitters

I leave for the airport in an hour. My flight takes off at 9:50 and I get to see my best friend before I go. I'm a nervous wreck and kind of want to throw up.

I'm landing in Madrid on ...Monday morning Spanish time. This is crazy. Oh my god.

My carry on's not packed yet. CRAP.

See you in Spain, everyone!