Like today for instance. I got the most random call from someone I had met last October and hadn't seen since. It took a good 5 minutes of trying to get me to remember him before I finally did. His name, which is a very typical name in Spain was still saved in my phone yet I had no idea who he was and when I would go through my phone book I believed it to be a completely different person with the same name...
I went to Portugal on my own for 10 days during Semana Santa and was surprised by the large quantity of Spaniards there. It seemed like all of Madrid emptied into Portugal and I was the only American in my hostel in Lisbon. Beautiful city, lots to do but too much rain.
Parties...Before going to Portugal I went the previous weekend to Valencia for the Las Fallas festival. Complete insanity. Thousands upon thousands of people from everywhere going absolutely crazy with fireworks and drinking and drunken debauchery all week, until Friday, culminating with the burning of huge statue effigies every year around this time. I went with two other Americans and a half Croatian/half Canadian girl who would not shut up the entire time about wanting to find herself a boyfriend. Thankfully, the following night we went on a Pub Crawl where she latched herself onto a German guy for the remainder of our time in Valencia. Pub Crawls are fun and a good way to meet a lot of people in a short amount of time but be aware that in all likelihood someone is going to end up as "the responsible one" by the end of the night. The first two bars were quite good and should anyone who reads this go to Valencia, make sure to try the "Agua de Valencia" - Trust me, its not actually water. But as the night progressed and the bars got steadily more club like and too crowded to move, I got a bit bored but was momentarily happy to receive a text from a rather new Spanish friend of mine who was attending an excellent concert I was missing to be in Valencia informing me he was having a blast with my other Spanish friends...so much so that I would come to discover they were out all night and wandered drunkenly through the big Rastro Flea Market in Madrid the next morning where he somehow lost his phone.
First time time I also slept in a car, which was a novel experience that I would never like to repeat. Also on the way there I was informed by one of my cohorts, "oh, by the way guys, I snore." What should have been said was, "oh, by the way guys, I snore like a lumberjack with a chainsaw." But I digress. It was still a worthwhile experience in which I had a lot of fun. Drinking the most poorly made mixed drinks on a park bench with about 100 other Spaniards of varying ages, lots of coffee in the morning and beer from about 1 in the afternoon onwards, mixed with a whole lot of walking around and intermittent bouts of rain made it a tale to tell for the future.
Post Portgual me has seen very little rest. Upon my return, meeting up with a Spanish/Chinese girl I'd met at an intercambio a few weeks prior for a house party and a very strong rum and coke. I could only stay for an hour because I'd made arrangements to meet up with New Spanish Friend and The Metalheads down in the south of Madrid. Arrived there a little drunk and spent the evening in excellent conversation until about 6 in the morning where we then went to a metal club known throughout Madrid as the defacto place to go when all other bars have closed. But then by about 7 they started to kick people out. We proceeded then to quest for food and drink more beer find kababs and later a open cafe for the morning. By 9 am I had lost all energy and was falling asleep at the table. Time to go. Got home around 10 am and proceeded to crash till around 2 or 3 in the afternoon.
The following weeks were near the same, teaching new classes, new privates and social life that seems to be gaining momentum only in the few months before I'm supposed to leave. Typical isn't it? A friend concert was last weekend, and finally getting to see his band play in Madrid before I left was nice. Also met two cool guys from Boston in the headlining band Despised Icon who proceeded to add me to facebook. Cool.
What I'm going to try and do from hear on out is a least try for two entries per week with thoughts on classes, spanish people, work environments, and social things going on and general thoughts and ideas.
I want to get into the habit of writing more as I'm also trying to work on a novel but only to delete what I write after I'm with a page cause I'm positive it's complete crap. Anyway, I will post some things relevant to that as well.
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