Spain spain spain :) this week was the best one yet by far...

everyday I find myself falling more and more in love with this lifestyle and this city, finding where i fit in, how to adapt, getting connected, knowing my way around, learning, loving, seeing, growing. this city has something to surprise me with everyday and i love it so much!!!!

sooo these past few days have just been so busy and insane and fun. ive gone out with new friends every night (cristian from italy, mauricio and yayo from mexico, and bruno the backpacker from chile) and also tevia and chrissie who are girls from my program. we are quite a motley crew. nights have involved bar hopping in malasana, dancing in huertas, and getting cheep beer and food from 100 monteceditos or Mueseo del Jamon, etc etc etc. this is such a great group of people.. and every day there is another adventure or story..

this blog certainly isn’t sufficient to explain all that i have been doing and learning and experiencing but i will try to relay a bit of what has been happening in the last week...

okay: first are school updates- classes are going well and im happy with my choices! coloquial spanish is sooo useful and its great when i hear words that cristian and mauricio and the kids in my class say and it makes sense and i can comment back and it keeps the convo going and makes me sound more knowledgeable of the language. my general spanish class is seriously one of the best classes ever because the teacher is fantastic and she really just tells it like it is. everyday i realize how much i dont actually speak spanish though haha, i have learned spanish all throughout school but we dont actually learn how to say normal phrases and not translate so literally and speak as they do. i feel like i am a baby learning how to speak normally all over again, and the things they say are not like english so its really about adopting a whole new way of speech and humor and normal sayings. its really interesting and amazing and great that i am doing this, but i see how far i am from actually being fluent. another thing is vocabulary.. thats really what its all about. i can talk in spanish about spanish, i can talk in spanish about myself and what i have been doing and ask you about your life and order at a restaurant and ask directions and generally make convo but when a certain topic comes up in a conversation where i just lack the vocabulary to contribute anything thats when i see the problem. like in my radio class with other spaniards- i am basically learning parts of the machine and sound booth but with spanish vocab. things i dont even know how to say in english.. hahaha. but besides that my regular classes are great and i have my little group of spanish friends in all my classes that basically tote me around and try to explain to me what in the world is going on. i truly do not know what i would do without any of their help but i feel bad sometimes in the group projects we have been doing and not being able to help out fully. but i dont think they mind too much and they have all assured me i will get better as the semester goes on. also my teachers have been just as welcoming and understanding and basically told me not to stress and just do the work when it best suits me... success? the other day i took the train back with Pablo my friend from class and it was soo nice and fun and just good. besides that i try to get out of Getafe as soon as possible when my the afternoon comes and go back to Madrid. its great being on campus and seeing other students but everyone is in school mode and Getafe isnt all that pretty and id rather be out walking around in the city..

okay lets seeee: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I went out with the group to various bars around the city, tues was chill and just talking and hanging out, wed was full of dancing and tapas, and thursday we spent at a rock n roll bar. it was all fantastic and happy and on wednesday we also went out with this spanish guy who works at kapital who gave us the 411 on what really goes down behind the scenes at that crazy night club, on thursday i met a guy from the canary islands who trained with black water and is in the spanish army... never an end the the interesting people who stumble into my life! and have i mentioned all the taxi drivers I end up having fantastic conversations with?? everytime i get in one i feel like i make a new friend and its sad when my ride is over haha. the last one and i talked about the economic crisis and how it has affected his business..

Friday was absolutely wonderful because I woke up and went to Cristina’s parents house for lunch. They are both in their 60’s and are just a jolly bunch of grandparents that I thoroughly enjoyed talking to. Her dad is so funny and quite the jokester while her mom is direct and down to earth. They made a delicious lunch for me and we had great conversation in spanish all afternoon. Cristina left for a dentist appointment, but I stayed and ended up there for several hours in lively conversation. They told me about their lives under Franco’s dictatorship, being born during the civil war, the rations they would get to take to school while American soldiers patrolled the cities, how they viewed America, we talked about politics, the problems of war, their extensive world travels, my life, why kids live with their parents so long in Spain, and basically everything under the sun. It was a real live history lesson and such a crazy thing hearing about the US from another’s point of view. Mostly not good things were said about America but hearing their reasoning made sense. The US is such a peculiar country I think and all americans abroad must do a very good job of breaking our stereotypes. anyway, the afternoon ended with them telling me I could come over anytime and eat and that one day we should visit cristinas moms parents who are 90 and in a nursing home in madrid. success.

That night I headed to La Latina where Chrissie lives to see a Flamenco show at the bar that her host mom owns. We got discounts to the show and saw another espectaculo up close and personal. flamenco is very passionate and the dancers and singers and guitarists are very very talented. we quite enjoyed ourselves and then after we headed to another rock n roll bar and then Chrissie and I began an epic bar crawl that led us from one side of the city to the other back in Malasaña where I live. We went to a rolling stones themed bar named Angie and then a funk club and then found this little hole in the wall burrito stand with the most epic burritos at 4 o clock in the morning.. it was amazinggggg!!! then chatted the night away with a hottie spanish guy and at 6 I took the 1 minute walk back to my piso.. success for life?

Saturday I got up early and headed to TOLEDO with Chrissie, Tevia, Mauricio, and Yayo. Toledo is a little romantic super old city just outside of Madrid. It used to be the capital of Spain and fun fact it was where all the swords in Lord of the Rings were made. Everything was Don Quixote themed and we are pretty sure that Cervantes was born there. Anyway, we pretty much walked 15 miles exploring the city and then i convinced the group that we need to walk another 15 miles outside the city to go see the Panoramic view from the other side of the river that I somehow knew existed. Anyways we walked and walked and walked and eventually came to an overlook of Toledo right as the sun was setting.. it was magnificent and worth every step, we were alll quite pleased and everyone fell asleep on the bus ride home :) Yay Toledo! That night I was so exhausted from the day that I didn’t go out but went straight to bed.

Sunday I got up and me and Bruno the backpacker from Chile took another epic walk around the city exploring and adventuring and eventually ending up back in La Latina with Chrissie. La Latina is the neighborhood where all the Madrileños go on Sundays for tapas and drinks and happy days in plazas and just for a good time. We got some snacks and sat in this big plaza with a bunch of other spaniards and just chatted and enjoyed the sun. We then walked over towards Atocha to see an art exhibit and then I booked it home to get ready for the Bob Marley Day concert at Sala Heinekein!!! Sala Heinekein is a huge concert hall and I went with my friend Krystal. It was sick. All these reggae bands playing bob marley songs and all the hippies of Madrid dancing for several hours. The funny thing about seeing the concert in spain was that all the talking during intermission was in spanish and everyone sang in spanish accents these english words hahah.. the whole night greatly supported my theory that bob marley is the most world wide known and appreciated artist and that goes across generations. its true- in every corner of the world people know bob marley and still regularly listen to him.

anyway, so can I say life is good??

thoughts in general: Madrid is a straight up cool city. Everyone dresses cool, acts cool, is cool. They work to live instead of live to work and everything is relaxed and people get things done when they want to. It is all about enjoying life to the fullest and taking a break every now and then to drink a coffee and catch up with friends. The experience living here has been fantastic, hard at times, but amazing nonetheless. I’ve realized that the hard part comes in when you come here and basically strip yourself of everything that has essentially defined you your whole life- your family, all your friends, your home, your language. it’s hard to explain if you have never had an experience like this but it really is about finding yourself when you have almost nothing that is familiar. coming here with no one is great, but at the beginning it was definitely lonely. now that i have met people and made better friends it has gotten worlds better!!!

another thing i have noticed is that almost everyone knows a little english here and there if anything because they always listen to american music and watch american movies- sometimes when you ask people where they learned english they almost always say from the movies. maybe i need to be watching more spanish tv? and most songs at the bars and clubs are in english so people learn how to sing in english and then learn basic phrases and such

okayyyyyyyyyyyyy, well i hope that gives you guys some idea of whats been happening here in SPAINNNNN! this beautiful place...

lots of adventures to be had :)

love you all!!!!! me encanta mi vidaaaaaaaaa :)

HASTA LUEGOOOOOOOO

ps im sitting in a cafe right now eating a croissant, drinking coffee, and doing homework. loooovoeeeee.