Comment ca cost? Bon nui, Bon b'rev. Comment tu tapel?

Oh my goodness, I just went to Paris, France--arguably the most beautiful city in the world! I'll give you the breakdown. Thursday I packed for a 3-day trip and I've never packed so lightly. 2 of everything, contact case, brush, make-up, the end. Oh, and an umbrella (that was important). I went with 2 of my friends, and the flight there went very smoothly, although I've never been on such a noisy plane because a group of Spanish high schoolers were being rather obnoxious. We landed at 9-ish, walked into some tents where the baggage claim was, and walked out into brisk French air. That was it. Tents. No customs...just tents. It was great. We actually landed in the Beauvais airport, an hour outside of Paris, so when we actually got into the city, figured out the metro system, and found the hostel, it was about 1am. To celebrate our first night in Paris, I got a kebap for dinner (ordering with lots of pointing and laughing) and then we walked over to the river Seine to see the Eiffel Tower from far away.

Wow, so I had my first hostel experience and gotta say, it was memorable. The front is a bar setting and through the back door is a courtyard with the rooms connecting. Apparently when my travel companions booked the hostel they went for the cheapest one, because one can only be a poor college student finding shelter in nastiness once in their life. In this particular place, if we wanted to rent sheets, they were 3.50. Other than that, we got a pillow, a blanket, and a bare mattress. We shared the room with 3 other strangers. A mother and daughter from Kazakhstan and a guy named Matias from Argentina. The room was tiny, with a sink & a shower (that had a button and when pushed, water would spurt out for about 20 seconds) and the toilets were outside, shared by all. Actually, for the most part, it wasn’t too bad. Clearly not hotel quality but for 20 euros a night and free breakfasts, I’d say it’s
sufficient.

The next morning, we got up and talked with Matias a little more in Spanish. He’s 27 and recently graduated in accounting, so now he’s traveling around Europe on his own for awhile. We invited him to walk around with us, but since he’d already seen the Louvre and everything, we just arranged to meet for dinner.
From there we set off to the Eiffel Tower and took many, many, many pictures with all 3 of our cameras. We didn’t climb it because there was such a long line but the view from below was good enough. After that we walked to the Arch of Triumph, which Napoleon apparently built. It was huge and…triumphant, but we just dimos una vuelta (stopped by) for a minute or so and went on our way. We walked town Avenue de Champs Elysees and found the Grand palace and Petit Palace, took pictures of Plaza de Concorde (with political embassies and such), and had a ghetto lunch in the Jardin du Tuileries right beside the Louvre. It was ghetto because I had a can of cold ravioli and my friends had deli salads. We then walked to the Notre Dame where the gypsies kept on accosting us asking if we spoke English so they could beg. The inside was gorgeous and there was a mass going on. I honestly thought it would be taller than it is, maybe because in the movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame there’s an entire 3 minute scene where he’s sliding down the side of the cathedral . At Notre Dame we went to the bathrooms that actually had 2 attendants, a little booth, and those bars that you have to push to walk through. I wish I had taken a picture because it was very odd.

We decided to take a little boat tour down the river Seine and, although we couldn’t understand the tour guide, it was beautiful all the same. At 6pm, we went back to the Louvre because on Fridays at that time anyone under 26 gets in free. There was a big glass triangle as the entrance and apparently we went underground to enter and then climbed back up to end up in the actual building. Unfortunately I was so tired from the day’s events that not only did I get lost for 40 minutes, but I also couldn’t concentrate and appreciate the art. The Mona Lisa was on display in a glass case, but there was an obnoxious crowd of people taking pictures instead of actually admiring it…I joined them in the picture part. The museum itself was humongous and we only covered about 10% if even that.

At 8:30 we left to meet Matias for dinner. Instead of walking one block to the metro, we took a wrong turn and walked the entire length of the gardens—about 13 blocks. We found the restaurant, called Au Refuge des Fondus, which was packed, of course, but it was sooo good.

The first course was just meat & cheese squares, and the 2nd course—mmm—was fondue. We skewered the meat ourselves in hot oil, or dipped bread or potatoes in the pot of melted cheese. It was quite amazing. To top it all off, included in the meal as a beverage is a glass of wine…but not in a glass; in a baby bottle (probably to avoid spilling, but also makes the restaurant unique). It was so cool, and our conversation in Spanish with Matias made it even better. For a dessert, we were served chocolate ice cream stuff. All in all, it was a bit pricey, but considering it was Paris and it was fondue and it was a 3 course meal, I’d say it was well worth it.

We made our way back to the hostel where we met quite a lot of guys: a bunch of Portuguese, a few French, and one American that graduated from Berkeley Music School. There were a lot of Americans staying there, but only one was there at the time. But one Portuguese guy named Liandro was telling me to visit his country, and another French guy was teaching me how to speak French, and the American was asking me about my trip. I was quite busy trying to pay attention to all 3 conversations at once. Soon after we went to bed and about 2 hours later I awoke…our new friend Matias decided to have “relations” on the bottom bunk and I was on the top. So in a hurry I hopped off the bunkbed and walked outside, not caring that I had neither my shoes nor my glasses. I joined a group of French guys that were playing poker outside for about 40 minutes, but I was blind and cold and on top of that they did not speak any English and little Spanish. Fortunately I went back to bed and slept through the night to find Matias gone in the morning to Belgium. Needless to say our impression of him went from great to horrible. Haha

The next morning I rose with head pounding. We took our time getting out but went
straight to the Opera House where we toured the inside. It wasn’t that amazing but the fact that it contained the chandelier from Phantom of the Opera made it pretty cool. From there we met the French/Algerian cousin of one of my trip-mates and we went to..uh…Le Se Cours? Or Se Bleu?...I dunno, some cathedral on the highest hill in the city. The cathedral itself was very pretty but it didn’t spark my interest too much, but the view of the city was awesome. Unfortunately all of our cameras were close to dead because of the usage from Friday, but we have some pictures of Saturday’s events. From there we ate some French crepes. Although very expensive and quite a tourist rip off, eating crepes in Paris near a world famous monument is worth it. Then we said goodbye to the relative and walked to Moulin Rouge, took a picture and went back to the hostel until the flight time. The rest of it was very uneventful.

And of course when I got back, I had the urge to speak Spanish, so although it was 12:30 at night, I dropped my stuff off at the apartment and went right back out. I ended up sitting and talking to my bartender friends after closing time while they cleaned until 7:30am (actually it was 6:30 but last night we changed to Daylight Saving Time). And that was my weekend. I learned a few phrases in French, spoke more Spanish in Paris than I did this week at school, and kept trying to say “Gracias” in France, and now I keep trying to say “Merci” in Spain. I’m just all confused.

Oh My Goodness! So much to say! This is a little Scatterbrained

March 9th was my last entry and now it is March 20th. What have I done since then?? Well, folks, nothing of importance. Finished my mid-terms. 9.7 in Civil War, and 8.something in Lit (both pretty bangin), and Conversation not graded yet. This week is a long weekend (Wed-Sun off) but I'm not completely sure why. I know Thursday was Father's Day, so I was expecting the entire family to come over for lunch. I was surprised to find that nobody else came, and when I said "Happy Father's Day" to Paco, he grumbled something about the Corte Ingles only made the holiday up to boost sales. Haha.

So I've been going to the beach a lot lately because of this break, and I have once again learned the value of sunblock. Last night I was radiating but today I at least feel a little bit cooler although I still look like a lobster. I must say, I know I'm in Europe when I see the back of someone with a bikini bottom and no top, and wonder if it's a boy or a girl. Oh I don't know whether to look and say "oh, it might be one of my Spanish guy friends" or not look because it's a topless lady. Speedos for the guys and bikinis for the girls, oh yes. To conform to Spanish lifestyle I went and bought a bikini top today. Instead of 30 euros at the Corte Ingles....5 euros at the Chinese store! Woot woot.

Last weekend I had a little adventure. I finished up the clown class, which by the way, was not as funny as the weekend before. It was actually a little painful. Saturday the only thing of interest was that we were assigned an animal to act like, and then sang a well-known song as that animal. Not very funny at all. However, our warm-up exercise was very odd: full-body massages. If you know me, you would know that I was very uncomfortable with that. My American friend said he had to massage the married lady's while her husband was watching--haha. One of my classmates came in just as we finished, so the teacher had him lay on the floor and the entire class of 15 people gathered around him and massaged him! Hand, arms, head, neck, back, butt, legs, feet. It was ridiculous and it seemed like it would never end.

But that wasn't the adventure I was referring to. I was referring to when, on Saturday night, I didn't feel tired, so I just didn't go to bed. Well, I guess it wasn't an adventure per say...all I did was occupy myself until 8am, then came home, washed up, and went to class. I went to bed at 6pm and woke up at 9am the next day.

On Wednesday we took a short trip to Valencia. It's only about 90 minutes away so we only spent about 5 hours in all there. I spoke to Pascual the bus driver again and he pointed out some of the Valencian monuments as we drove by. Unfortunately, my professor from the first couple weeks of school, Emilio, embarrassed me by pretending I was in love with the bus driver. Ugh, how awkward.
Anyway, I went with some girls to the Cathedral that holds the holy grail and a saint's preserved severed arm, but we didn't have time to see them. Instead, we climbed the tower that overlooked the city.

At 2pm we walked a couple blocks to the Town Square where they were setting off fireworks to celebrate the festival Fallas. I have it on video, but pretty much it's just a series of popping noises and smoke. Not very exciting, but very famous. It was packed with people for blocks all around. We went to the Lonja, which is apparently a masterpiece of architecture, but it didn't look like we could go in. I joined a different group of girls and we relaxed in the sun until it was time to go. On the way to the bus, we saw the lining up of a parade--men & women & children in traditional Spanish garb lined the streets. They were sooo cute! While I was in Valencia I made sure to try Horchata (valencian drink made from tigernuts), some Valencian oranges (actually haven't tried them, but I have them with me), and Valencian Paella (not sure how it's different from regular, but it was good).

On a different note, watching the Spanish news is quite boring. I'm pretty sure the only things they talk about are: Marta del Castillo, the repression, Bolonia, and the pope. First of all, Marta del Castillo is a girl who disappeared on January 24th and ever since then the media has been going crazy over her case, as if she's the only victim of murder. The latest news is that her ex-boyfriend killed her and threw her body in a dumpster, so now the police are digging through the public dump. The public held this whole campaign to find her, even wearing shirts and pins that say "Everyone is a Marta" What the heck does that mean? We are all decomposing in a land-fill? How inspiring, thank you, geniuses. Anyway, this public outcry begs the question: if people hadn't made such a big deal over getting justice, would the police go to this same extent to find her killers and body?

The other thing is politics and the repression, although Paco my host padre loves politics so it may be just the programs he watches that bore me to tears. I see Obama on the news about as much as I see the Spanish politicians, but since I don't understand, nor do I care about what's happening, I don't pay too much attention.

The protesting of Bolonia has gone on at the University since I got here but just now it's starting to make the news. Bolonia apparently is the movement of the European Union or Spanish government or something to raise the cost of the public universities and make it more similar to U.S. colleges, at the same time making the degrees certified in all European countries. Yeah, it stinks having to pay more and good for you for protesting the government...but apparently the issue was decided almost 10 years ago, so all this protesting is doing nothing. I wonder if it has made it to United States news since there are so many riots in Spain and elsewhere.

And the Pope. Wow, does he get his share of fame. After the normal news, Paco turns on the parody news called Intermedio--kind of a Daily News with Jon Stewart thing. But Intermedio makes fun of everything the Pope does. Apparently the Catholic leaders have launched a pro-life campaign that points out that a Lynx (the cat thing) is more protected than a human life...which, by the way, is a very valid argument. But Intermedio loves to make fun of it. Unfortunately, they talk too fast for me to understand everything, but then again, I don't think I want to understand. Also, recently the Pope visited Africa and declared that the effort to promote the use of condoms in order to prevent the spreading of AIDS is not solving the problem, in fact it's condemning it further (which, I have to admit, is a little outrageous). Well, you can imagine the kind of fun Intermedio has had with blowing that issue out of proportion. Sometimes Intermedio is interesting, but with these news pieces that have come up, it's now annoying and clearly in opposition to the Pope and what he stands for.

Ok, enough about news! I would like to touch on the subject of life in America. I find that here in Europe, I'm often ashamed of my origin. Not only do I know very little about European geography, history, and current world news, but I'm also disappointed in my bilingual skills when I know so many people who are fluent in at least 3 languages. I mean, I guess in America we kind of have an excuse. The country is so incredibly large compared to others that it isn't too odd to only focus on ourselves, and plus English is spoken by pretty much the entire population as well as the country to the north, so our monolingual lifestyle makes sense. But when I meet Germans, and French, and Italians, and Norwegians, and Nigerians...it gives me a sense of culture and makes me feel as if the United States ISN'T the best thing since sliced bread. And having each border of the country being 10 hours away, at most, makes the community seem a little closer. California is soooo far away from NC, but Alicante isn't far at all from Andalucia!

Whew, oy, what else did I want to say? My host madre asked me today why I always went out alone. I responded that I go to the beach knowing that somebody I know will be there. She says that normally her students call up their friends and meet them, and then asks me why I don't hang out with the Americans. I tell her that for the most part they already found someone who they can relate to, she says "Well, join their group." And I just shrugged and smiled. Look, lady, first of all, it's not that easy to just "join" a group. They have to want you to join. Second of all, I've been wondering about this since I got here, you don't have to remind me! And what if I want to go shopping alone? I'm pretty sure for the most part my friends don't do anything in the afternoons besides chill at home and go to the beach...just like I do. Anyway, the end.

Umm what else?? March 20th, next weekend I go to Paris but I heard on the news something about a strike in France and they're canceling some flights...
Alright, I'll leave you with that. Hopefully next week I can tell you about sightseeing in Pareeee

"Lo que Espana vota, va a misa!!"

Foolishness & Music

Aye, Clown class. Madre mía, where do I begin? I managed to get out of bed on Saturday morning and went to the University to participate in a class called Discovering Your Inner Clown. As a review: I am not required to take this class, I just wanted to, lol. I’ll just give you a chronological overview. Shall we? Pretty much the class is a giant game. I’ll tell you what I mean.

We did some icebreaker games, including Simon Says but instead of Simon it’s “Perrequito.” Finally the instructor had us lay down and awaken our inner child. So we went to sleep as young adults and woke up as 4-year-olds seeing the world for the first time. One by one, we rose and walked around the room. A bunch of people grabbed the rug in the middle of floor and rolled themselves up in it while others started a tickle fight or a spontaneous game of tag. One guy grabbed a poster stuck on the wall and wore it like a cape. All of this without words! Next, the “topic” of the session was The Importance of Laughter. The teacher had us dress up in the random pieces of clothing she had laid out and come out in front of the class and just look at the audience, making eye contact. I think she was trying to make us understand the importance of communicating with the audience. There was a bunch more we did but I don’t remember, honestly

In the afternoon session, we learned about the importance of Listening to each other. When I say “we learned” what I really mean is we played a bunch of games and when I say “Listening” what I really mean is getting the feel of what the other person is doing. We formed 2 clusters and each cluster had a leader, so whatever the leader did, the others followed. So we ended up having a spontaneous cluster war. One group would pretend to be monsters and growl at the other, and the other group would run away in fear. Then one group would stick their tongues out, while the other group shot at them with imaginary machine guns. Haha, let’s just say lots of sound effects and screaming.

Another activity was Siamese Twins. Whatever your partner does, you do. Your emotions are their emotions. You don’t have to wonder what they’re thinking—you already know. So we presented ourselves to the rest of the class, and stuck shoulder-to-shoulder, we had to “listen” to each other and react appropriately. It turned out to be hilarious to just watch people’s expressions and interaction. And all of these activities involve dressing up and wearing clown noses. The other American in the class absolutely hated it, and I have no idea why. All we really do is laugh at each other and have fun. We dress up in clown outfits for crying out loud! What’s not to like?? And somehow the above took 8 hours.

Sunday I had a little trouble catching the bus at 9am because I went to bed at 5 so I accidentally got up 40 min. late. But no matter, because when I got there they were just warming up. The topic of that day was “Emotions” which, knowing me, is my favorite. One of the games was to pretend we were on a spaceship going to different planets, so we all sat on the floor, and went to planets like Happiness, and Sadness, and Desire. Happiness was funny because everyone was jumping around laughing and shouting and hugging. Desire was…very awkward. Lol. Everyone was hugging each other and making flirty sound effects (you know what I mean, right??) and then they fell on the floor and were climbing all over each other. Whoa. Then the teacher said “You can desire the furniture!” so then everyone started kissing and caressing the floor and walls. When we got back on the “spaceship” one of our classmates shouted “I want to stay on this planet!” and the teacher said “Oh no, you’ve lost your captain! Someone save him!” and so the entire class rushed over and literally dragged him to the spaceship. Haha, it was crazy.

We also got in a big circle and the instructor had us do something we don’t usually do in public. So some people danced & screamed, some people scratched themselves or picked their noses, and me…I sang opera…and everyone clapped, lol. My professor said “Why don’t you do that in public??” and I replied that I didn’t get the opportunity very often.

Then we got into trios and in front of the class represented one emotion that started small and climaxed to insanity. One group did anger and by the end they were stomping and grunting all over the place, threatening the audience. Another group did Desire and….wow, that was disturbing. By the time they finished, they had taken each other’s socks off and they were playing intense footsie after caressing them. My group did Sadness and we were blubbering and wailing all over the place. I took out an imaginary knife and threatened to cut myself while my partners were trying to talk me out of it…all without words.

Haha, wow, what madness. I’m going to take pictures next week. Just describing it doesn’t do it justice at all. People’s expressions are just too funny. We don’t use any props except for the clothes we bring out, but somehow we find things to do. For instance, the group that did Happiness bobbed their heads in-sync and got more emphatic until they fell over on the floor laughing wildly. Insanity—all of it.
Anyway, enough of that.

Did I mention I went to see my friend’s concert? They played for like 15 minutes b/c it was a showcase but it was still great. This Friday they will have a full length concert and it’s the highlight of my week.
After the concert, I found them in the audience. I couldn’t remember the rest of the band members, but they sure remembered me even though I only met them one time, a month before that. I went to their band practice on Thursday and heard a bunch of their songs. I absolutely loved it, but I doubt they would let me come to all of their practices. They do it in this tiny room that the owners rent out to aspiring musicians. Lucas the guitarist/vocalist told me we should get together and compose a song but maybe he was just spouting off at the mouth. I ended up buying their CD for 9 euros, even though I could have haggled it down to 6. But #1 I’m not pushy #2 I don’t want to take advantage of their friendship #3 I want to support their band. While we were discussing the price, Lucas shut the door, leaned against it, turned the lights down, and with a cigarette in one hand said in a smooth voice “Laaaura…10 euros….” and at that point I just had to give in. After giving them the 9 euros I gave them 1 more and said “This is just a gift” because they had originally pushed for 10.

Through these guys I met 3 Spanish girls that are really nice. So now I don’t only hang out with boys. One of the girls said “You like flirting with the boys, don’t you?” and I said “I mean, I like talking to them, yeah…” and she said “Well do you wanna kiss them?” and I said “Omg, no!” lol. I mean, I can’t help it if none of my Spanish friends hang out with girls very often!

My madre kindly reminded me last night that I should not trust the boys here, and my padre added “The bed! That’s all they want!” but I insisted that most were gentlemen. “Do they study?” “No.” “Do they work” “Some of them, yeah, others, no…”
“Exactly.” Haha. I showed them my pictures of the band, and Juan’s group, and Fran’s group (because obviously not all of my friends know each other). My madre pointed out the one she thought was cutest lol but I told her that he was short and she sounded disappointed.

Ummm well, okay that was my week. Midterms are this week—ahh so fast! It’s only 3 classes, goodness gracious, it’s a breeze! And I have most of my Spring break plans in the making. Looking back, I probably could have gotten that ultra expensive train pass and end up spending the same amount of money as it’s taking for flights, etc. But too late now. I have Germany & Italy and that’s all I care about! XD
More to come!

Carnaval & Madrid (This is really really long)

Wow! It is two whole weeks since I last wrote and you wouldn’t believe the insanity! Carnaval was pretty ridiculous. I have never seen an entire city so excited to celebrate a pointless holiday. The kickoff events started on Wednesday and the entire week there were concerts every single night. One of the first nights I went to the “parade” downtown. I’m thinking floats and funny costumes, and music, ya know, like a normal parade!.....not at all. I followed the noise of drums and bagpipes (bagpipes in Spain??) to the old part of town, off the streets and onto the pedestrian walkways. What I found was definitely not a parade.

I saw a multitude of people all walking in one direction so I joined their numbers. The crowd stopped in an open plaza while the drum continued. All of the sudden out came these crazy people dressed up in red and black (a combination of clowns and demons, it looked like). They whipped out all sorts of little firecracker things and started running around screaming, setting them off. Some had pitchforks that shot sparks out of the prongs, one guy was running around with a torch sipping oil/alcohol and spitting it out on the torch so it grew bigger (I can’t think of the word when the fire all of the sudden heats up and sort of erupts).

After they exhausted that place (it smelled horrible), they beat their drums to the next plaza where they did the exact same thing. And after 10 minutes they started one of their concerts. And that was my first Carnaval activity.

Friday was my birthday! I slept till 1pm or so but woke up with a constantly runny nose. I immediately sat down to do some of the heavy load of homework I had for the week only to have my madre mutter to herself “on the computer as soon as she wakes up! I don’t understand it…” But I ignored it and kept working. I was on the computer from 11-5, and although I took an hour break to eat lunch and another hour to IM friends, I was working diligently otherwise. The paper I wrote I ended up getting a 9.5 out of 10 which is A+ according to the strict Spanish grading. My teacher likes me XD

I think I went to the beach after that….but I’m not quite sure. If I did, it was cold and boring. What can I say, the beach has lost its glamour. Whatever I did in the meantime, after dinner I got ready to go out for my birthday and when I came out of my room in my party dress and leggings, my madre said “You’re going out? But you’re sick!“ and I said “I know but it’s Carnaval! I have to go out!” (she didn’t know it was my birthday) and she said “If you go out like that, you’ll be confined to the bed tomorrow! But do whatever you want, I’m just saying…it’s ridiculous to go out when you have a cold.” Haha well the story ends when the next day I’m completely well and her advice is not very useful!

At around 9:45, I met one of my American friends in town b/c she heard it was my birthday and wanted to buy me a dessert. How sweet! It was my first present of the day---a gofre. It’s pretty much just a Belgium waffle but it has chocolate on it and it’s AMAZING!! I was so happy…but then it got really good: The REAL parade.
The Carnaval itinerary said the Parade started at 10:30 so we hung out in the cold until then…they lied. It started at 11:30. Oh well, it was fun anyway. I kept on saying “Aww yay. I’m so excited!” and probably annoyed my friends with my enthusiasm. When it finally started, they had characters with huge heads, several percussion bands, samba dancers, little babies in fish costumes, jazz bands, roman catapults, jugglers, dolls, mops, Mexican dancers, flamenco dancers and flying candy. It was great, not to mention cold. When it finally ended I, in a blissful state, hopped on over to Brujas to say hello to my Spanish friends because, frankly, I miss them when I only get to see them 2 nights a week. Well, by then it was about 1:30am (the parade was very long) and…I don’t know how it happened but I ended up just staying at Brujas the entire night even after it closed—until 7am. I met 2 other people that had my same birthday and everyone sang to me in Spanish! It made me so very happy. I learned yesterday that Brandon & Sarah (my real bro/sis) sang to me from across the ocean at a random café in California. XD hooray!

Yeah…so 7am, that was really fun. It got to the point where I was just like “look guys, I can’t understand Spanish right now, I’m so zoned out.” So I walked home to the sound of birds chirping in the crisp morning air. Hehe. I got up at 12pm though, walked in the kitchen, and my madre said “I can’t believe you’re up! Only 5 hours of sleep…I just don’t understand” and I’m thinking “Lady, you don’t like when I sleep in, and you don’t like when I get up at a decent hour…what do you want?” But I’ve learned to just laugh it off.

I ended up going to the beach and talking with friends for a little bit, until I found the cutest little program I ‘ve ever seen. It wasn’t a contest because there were no judges and it wasn’t a presentation because it wasn’t planned, but they had a youngster costume thing going on, where these little kids from toddlers to 8 year olds walked across a teeny platform to show everyone their costume. It was too cute. I was by myself but if I had someone there they would have heard my audible sighs and exclamations. My favorite: Pooh Bear.


Okay: that night was the big night of the year: Carnaval. I can’t describe it fully. Let’s put it this way: costumes, teenagers, drunk, trash the city. There is no way I’m going to come to Spain and miss seeing the most important night of a young person’s life. Canalejas is the park near my house. They call it a park, but it’s really a wide grassy spot in between the one-way roads. We got there around 12:30 as is custom, and there were literally thousands of teenagers/younguns from 15 to 26 absolutely covering the area. I was wondering what age the parents let the kids go to Carnaval (b/c there’s no doubt the parents know what goes on there) but apparently the 15 year-olds get to party. Drinking under 18 is obviously illegal here, and so is public drinking, but Carnaval is the particular night in which the Police just turn their heads.

Absolutely ridiculous costumes. Swimsuits, Female products, pirates (like me), gynecologists, etc. The most popular for the guys was to dress like a woman. For real, everywhere I looked I saw sock-stuffed bras, blonde wigs, and miniskirts. One thing that is well-noted though, is that the girls don’t dress up nearly as revealing as they do in the U.S.—in general and during Carnaval. I met some girls who were Minnie Mice (or maybe Strawberry Shortcake) with little freckles and polka dots. It was so funny to see ridiculous costumes, but alas, I didn’t take many pictures. They were just too outrageous. By the end of the night—oh my gosh, it was absolutely trashed. It was probably enough to fill an entire dump truck with all those bottles and cups and paper bags.

Unfortunately, my night was a little boring. I started off with the Americans, but soon got bored of them (what can I say, I like the Spaniards!) so I set off trying to find my Spanish friends. The problem was, with so many people, it was hard to find them and when I set off for a bathroom break (the boys just peed wherever they wanted but the girls had to find a legit bathroom…stupid boys) I came back to find they had all disappeared. Still wanting to hang out with people, I wasted so much of my minutes calling people to find out where they were. I never found them, but I did meet 2 interesting fellows. I was walking along and saw this poor guy in a blonde wig bent over with a 2 liter coke in his hand…haha. I asked him if he was alright and we struck up a conversation. He was very funny because when his friend came along, he translated everything the friend said into English for me even though I told him I understood…haha. His name is David and his friend is Vicente. They invited me to their house---bwahahaha. No. Anyway, after much searching, I gave up on finding my other friends and went home. It was 8am. You cannot imagine the embarrassment to be walking through the streets of Alicante in a pirate costume at 8am. Those old ladies gave me some nasty looks. It’s a good thing I left my plastic sword behind. And if you’re wondering….I didn’t drink.


That was Carnaval! And the entire purpose was to have a party. Was it really only 8 days ago? Whew! In that case, this past week was nothing special. Thursday night I met with Lucas, my friend from the band and his 3 amigas. From them I learned that his band is doing a concert this Wednesday so I’m gonna skip chorus and go to that. FYI: chorus is a joke. We spent the entire 2 hours learning “I feel pretty” from West Side Story. I’m sorry, but harmony, especially in that song, is not that hard. I don’t think skipping it will put me behind at all.

Friday was Madrid! We left at 9am, arrived at 4-ish (I think). Coincidentally, we had the same bus driver as when we rode up to the caves/Guadalest and I got carsick and sat in the extra seat. So he recognized me and asked me if I was carsick this time. His name is Pascual and he’s uber nice. He was talking about how he drives us everywhere and how Madrid people (Madrilènes) are so much nicer than Valencia people (Valencianos). I said “So you like driving?” and he says, poor guy “Yeah, it’s been 2 months since my girlfriend of 2 years broke up with me…so I drive a lot.” Aww Pascual the bus driver. So nice.

Anyways, in Madrid the first thing we did was go to the Prado and see the classic art. I didn’t think I would like it because art doesn’t interest me that much, but I found myself fascinated by the artist’s interpretation of people’s expressions. Especially in the Jesus artwork where we saw what the artist thought the people felt like. It wasn’t an organized tour, so I walked the majority of it by myself at my own pace. It closed at 8, 5 of us went out to eat. After much searching we finally settled for a tapas place. Unfortunately, it was expensive: 11 euros for a drink and pork & rice that didn’t even fill me all the way. Oh well. That was the night!

Saturday at 8:30 I got up to a very early, but very yummy breakfast. Pascual (aww) drove us further into the city (walking distance but the group was too big to move all at once) and dropped us off in front of *trumpet sounds* The Royal Palace!! We had our very own tour guide…and it was pretty dang amazing. Elaborately painted ceilings, hand-stitched wallpaper, intricate tile floors, gorgeous chandeliers. Whew! It was intense but no photos allowed. My favorite room was the throne room. The walls were a deep red with 6 stone statues of greek gods, and the ceiling was painted with some kind of roman mythology reference, with random gold statue people in the corners of the ceiling! Crazy.

Later that day we went to El Retiro—the huge park in the center of the city. We didn’t walk very far into it, but we got to see a little lake where people rented rowboats and a huge statue for some random reason. That’s pretty much all there was there. It was nice to just go and be in actual nature, though. I got a sudden urge last night to go and sit somewhere where I can’t hear the whir of cars and can’t see the evidence of city lights in the night sky, and just be completely alone. So negotiating my urge with the real world, I went to the beach last night when I got back….yeah, not the same thing. It was really bright, lots of people, and not quiet at all. So much for that.

Anyway, our next stop was the Contemporary Art museum whose name I can’t recall. I’m not really into contemporary art although I tried my best to see the meaning behind a twisted piece of metal or better yet, a painting of a twisted piece of metal. But alas, I suffered in vain. What I did find interesting was the Picasso collection with the every famous masterpiece: Guernica. It was huge and me & my friend Nastya spent a good 10 minutes just standing and pondering. However, I was very very tired and went to the hotel to take a nap. Later that night I went out but felt a distinct difference between night life in Madrid versus Alicante. Although Madrid was more elegant and efficient, Alicante is approachable and laid back. I found myself genuinely missing the weekend before when I stayed up till the early morning just talking with my Spanish friends.

The next morning we all got up, put our bags on Pablo (the name of the bus) and did a walking tour of downtown Madrid. But it ended up being just walking because nobody paid attention to our tour guide, hehe. We visited El Rasco—the huge market with people packed in tight. I didn’t buy anything although I had my eye on the countless jewelry shops and indie-skirt stands. That was pretty much it. We hopped on Pablo and drove home. I’m pretty sure literally everyone except Pascual (aww) was asleep at one point.

Hooray! You are finally brought up to date on the happenings in my life!! Walking around Madrid, my friends kept on lamenting that they did not choose Madrid over Alicante. But, although Madrid is certainly beautiful and feels more European as far as architecture goes, I love Alicante just the same, and Madrid doesn’t interest me beyond a weekend trip. I guess it’s just that once I get to know people in a city, it’s my home forever, just like Raleigh and Durham. I love them not because of the cities themselves, but because of the people.

So overall I’m doing pretty good. They are offering scuba diving classes and I certainly want to take those! But I’m still having a lot of trouble with Spring Break plans. I have a trip to Italy down but there’s the first 12 days that are unaccounted for. And my madre conveniently told me last night that her family is going to London over Spring Break so pretty much: go on a trip or waste all my money buying food for myself anyway. One group of friends is getting a train pass with no set plans, another group is going to London to stay with friends, one girl is going HOME and coming back (that’s just stupid), and the rest of the people I frankly don’t care to spend my time with. Any suggestions?

BTW, I finally gave in and got a Tuenti—the Spanish version of facebook and am having a ball adding all of my Spanish friends to it. Hehe.

Let it be known that I truly and dearly miss all of you. I really do.

Love you