Spain Spain Spain... lets seee hereeee....

this week was another lovely one here in Europe :)

Tuesday I met up with a kid that I met at a Tapas Bar to have coffee, speak in Spanish, and for me to learn a little bit about his country. His name is Borja and he is really intent on teaching me about Spain and sends me suggestions of things I should do and see and eat hahaha. He is super nice and I will probably see him again this week!!!

Wednesday our program organized this thing called “Speed Mixing” kind of like speed dating but like friend style where we got to go and talk to spaniards and like essentially make friends with kids here at Carlos Tercero. The whole event turned out to not be as awkward as originally assumed and I met some nice people and got to practice my spanish- I am probably meeting up with one of the kids on Wednesday to go for drinks. success!

Friday I woke up to some sad news. Mauricio, my friend from mexico who I have been spending the last few weeks with, called me to tell me that his dad had died (not sure how) and that he was returning to Mexico and wouldn’t come back and he wanted to say goodbye. It was really, really upsetting to hear him so sad and to know he had to deal with something so tragic. Also the fact that he thought to call me and let me know really struct me. So, him and Yayo flew back to Mexico this past weekend and I haven’t heard from them yet. Also, Cristian, my friend from Italy who is also very close to Mauricio had to return to Italy this weekend because he ran out of money. He won’t be back for another month. And to top it all off, Bruno, the crazy backpacker from Chile left last week for London and won’t be back. Uggggg so sad. My little group of friends from the past month has all left and I am back at square one again. But like my mom said people come and go in life and I just have to remember that it was great to have them be my friends when they were. And one day I’ll see them all again!! Understandably, I wasn’t in the best of spirits after that so Friday I just went for a run in Retiro and slept :)

Saturday was much better!!! Tevia and I got up and had ourselves a little adventure to SEGOVIAAAAAA!!! Which is like this beautiful little mountain castle ish town city about 2 hours away by bus from Madrid. It was soooooooo nice to see mountains again let me tell you!!!! Ahhhh, and the place was beautifullll. I think better than Toledo. We saw a Roman aqueduct, an amazing cathedral, and a little castle at the end of the city that apparently Walt Disney used as inspiration for all of his castles. We spend 5 euros to go up into the castle and walked up like a million stairs to the top of the tower to see this beautiful view of Segovia with the mountains in the background. Me mola muchooo!! Then we headed off to get some crepes, but before we could get very far an old spanish man sitting on a bench stopped us and started talking to us in Spanish... for the next hour. Turns out he sits on this bench everyday and stops all the foreign people that look nice and tries to learn about their culture? Awesome? So we chatted with him about various things including music and geography and good food and it was quite the random encounter but nice nonetheless. We ended the day with some cafe con leche in the plaza by the cathedral and then took the bus back to Madrid.

Saturday night Tevia and I went out with Naomi (my french-canadian friend from the Paris airport) and all of her foreign friends!! We were with Italians, Canadians, French (what do you call people from France?), and a guy from England! Every language was being spoken and we all had such a great time hopping from bar to bar in Huertas until the sun rose. And lets see- I managed to run into 2 guys that I saw in Segovia that day, the German guy from several weeks ago that I went out with, and Tevia and I ended up at our favorite pizza place with the rest of the Madrid nightlife at 7 in the morning. Yes.

oh PS: before we actually went out we got talking to the French girl about American stereotypes and she of course informed us that everyone thought we were dumb and didnt know about geography. we have noticed that almost everyone thinks that Americans don’t know where Spain is on the map... you guys all know where Spain is right???? We tried to explain to her that we really do know a little bit about the world and then she showed us a Youtube video of that show called Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader which had a woman on there that didn’t know France was a country. Apparently for an entire year France had a field day with this video and it was like all over the news and such and everyone talked about it and thus we get this stereotype of being idiots. So Tevia and I concluded that maybe America should start censoring what shows we broadcast abroad. That is how everyone imagines the US- with what they see on TV. A majority of all the shows and media here in Spain comes from the US so that is what they base their opinions on- shows like Jersey Shore and Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader. Of course we are going to look stupid!!! So America- how about we just send them episodes of Jeopardy and the history channel? ps- this is the video she showed us:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqi0DwNLJdM

Sunday I slept until three (much needed) and hung out around the house all day doing homework and such. Then me, Chrissie, and Tevia went with Chrissies host mom to a little local concert at a cafe. It was awesoemeeeeee ;sjkfkgj. I think I found a new favorite band. The man singer was called Eliseo Parra and they played all these songs with like a million different instruments and it was like modern spanish folk music- or something like that. Look it up on Youtube it was a successss!!! And apparently the guy was pretty well known here in Spain. We left around 12:30 and headed to the metro to go home when of course we would run into 3 guys from London that Tevia had met Friday night at Kapital- so we talked to them for an hour in the metro about American accents and other random things when finally Tevia and I had to run before the metro closed.

It is now Monday and I am sitting in the cafeteria at schooool!!! Just to let you guys know, I have given up my attempt to look Euro and not carry a backpack. I really just need to have a backpack so for the past week I’ve taken my books to school in my huge hiking Boulder backpack. Whatever spaniards get over it. hahahha.

I am meeting up with Tevia later to start planning our Spring break trip to PORTUGALLLLL :) She is also studying Portuguese like me so we both “tener ganas de ir” ! Alsooooooo, me, chrissie, and tevia and a colombian guy I met at speedmixing are probably going to adventure down to the south coast of Spain to CADIZ for Carnavallllll at the beginning of Marchhhh!!! yes yes yes yesssssss :)

Anyways, the weather is nice and all things are well in Malasaña. There is a group of guys that hangs out outside my apartment and plays cards EVERYDAY. and every time I come and go they all stop their game and stare and say “eyyy hollaa guapaaa, rubiaaa, que tal”. I try to act serious like I can’t hear them but every time I start giggling a bit because its just so awkward. and they do it every time. dont you think they would get used to seeing me?? its nothing malicious just they are voicing their appreciation for my blond hair. as does every older man on the street when i pass, or people in cars, and at clubs, and in stores, and in the metro... guapa guapa guapaaaaaaaaa... ahhhhh; the other day a guy came up to me while i was waiting in Sol for Tevia and was like “oh hey, you are from Russia”.. no? and someone else told me that I have a mexican accent when I speak spanish. hahahhaha- random random people.

Okay.. so important spanish phrases adopted by me, chrissie, and tevia:

“ohhhhhh pasa algo”- opposite of the typical spanish “no pasa nada”

“botelloning”- making a verb of the word for basically pregaming in public

“vale, venga, bueno, pues nada”- attempts to end a conversation that will probably last for another hour

Fun Spain fact:

the floors of buildings start at level zero. So if you want to go to the first floor you will have to walk up a flight of stairs. In america floors start at one.

okayyyyy I think this is all from me at the moment!!!!! CHAOOOOO GUAPOSSSS...