Frustrating.
Spain is lovely, it really is, but it sucks not being understood most of the time. I have mastered asking for things and asking for directions, but I cannot converse whatsoever. My brain feels like it’s splitting when I listen to all this Spanish. The culture doesn’t frustrate me so much, but the language barrier bugs the living hell out of me. Not being able to communicate cuts off a lot of people. Just think about how much isolation one would feel if they could not communicate, all I have are the students on the trip.. my communication bubble is about 50 students. FML. I have a… what—1 to 50 ratio of people I like (out of all the people I meet). Well that’s an exaggeration, but you get what I’m saying.
So Thursday! Laura and I went to the bullfight— Los Torros! First of all, the matadors are not the guys holding the capes. The matadors actually ride horses and come out to stab the bull with long spheres. The guys holding the capes are called toreros— or something close to that. I have a favorite one.. Mister Sergio Aguilar! He makes the outfit (and by outfit I mean pants) look really, really nice. Just saying. So Anyway after the bullfight Laura and I were heading to a club (Teatro Capital) so we wore our club clothes to the bullfight. Me in my hot pink dress, which might as well be paint or something, and her in a short black dress. She was the smart one and wore flats, well.. she really didn’t have any heels, but that’s besides the point, in this story it would have been the smart move. I wore my lovely peep-toe 4 inch heels. To a bullfight, guys. Soo.. we left the apartment that day, and before I hit the street I say.. I’ll get us a taxi because I couldn’t walk all the way to the metro in my shoes. So we take a taxi to la corrida de torros, and when we get there the fights had already started and you’re not allowed to take a seat until the current fight is over so we grab some cervezas, and chill at the stands for a bit. When the fight was over we take our seats.. so.. imagine an open stadium made out cement, and the aisles are pretty narrow, no railing, and me trying to walk in heels upwards to my seat… yeaaaaa I’m not the best walker in heels as is.. completely sober and on even ground, can you imagine? I’m sure. Luckily the guy leading us to our seat (yes we shared MY seat, because her ticket was for a few aisles back) let me grab his hand— actually, I’m not sure if he let me grab his hand or if I just did it anyway, either way this is how I did not fall getting to my seat. What is that we hear as we go up to our seats? Applause! And it was only coming from our section.. oh the Spaniards are quite gracious, let me tell you. Especially if you’re in a short dress. Lol. Love it! The fight was pretty intense, I believe 5 bulls died throughout the whole thing. It’s pretty sad, but a good cultural experience. Throughout the fight there was an odler man sitting behind us trying to talk to us in Spanish, and whenever we’d get lost as to what was happening Laura would ask him and he’d explain— in Spanish. Also through the course of this lovely experience, some other gentlement forfeited their seat cushions, and programs! Which was great, because I wanted both anyway but didn’t buy them.. anddd there was a man that had a.. hmm.. leather sack full of wine, and he had offered it to us, but we turned him down and kept shaking our heads, then the old man sitting next to him drank from it to show us it was alright to drink, and me being the guinea pig with food— I took some, then Laura did. What more can girls at a bullfight ask for?!
And well the end of the fight was coming, the man sitting behind us asked us to go to a bar for ‘cerveza y jamon’.. beer and ham. How sweet! We thanked him, but turned him down.
And then it was time for the disotheque! We went to Teatro Kapital. It was pretty fun, no big dael, only seven stories. Within the first hour of us getting there, there was a male beauty pageant. There was a stage and.. men walked out in sashes, guys. Quite interesting if you ask me, I thought it was really.. weird at first, then the swimsuit portion came and I opened my mind just a little more. I’m very OK with this European thing, jejeje. After gawking for a little bit we all started to dance, mind you no one really shows up until after midnight so we were all just dancing together.. our group of 20 or so Americans. After a while a ton of people started showing up. You can definitely tell the Americans from the Europeans just from the dancing styles. It was very interesting.. very. I should have filmed this or something, some national georgaphic type ordeal. Quite an observation, I must say.
This was where I met Alberto! Sadly though, he called and I have yet to call him back. I don’t know why people don’t believe me when I say I’m really, REALLY shy. I think I have a complex.
So anyway, the club was super fun, dancing for a few hours. Apparently the clubs close at like.. 5 or 6AM. Ridiculous. I left at a very early 3AM. By the end of the night my toes hurt so bad, I couldn’t feel them again until yesterday. Lesson learned.
Well tomorrow is a holiday here, so no school.. tonight the few students that are here for the extended weekend are going to the club. Sadly my travel arrangements did not work out, so I’ll be here in Madrid for the weekend.. I had bought a ticket to Paris, but there were some issues with my credit card because I was being charged from a company based in Ireland and that country was blocked because my bank knows I’m in Spain blah blah.. I said fuck it, and will finally spend free days in Madrid. I live by el Parque del Retiro.. I mean it’s practically a neighbor, I can see it from the balcony. I have yet to be in there… so sad. I’ve heard such lovely things about it too. So sometime in the next couple of days I will go there. I’m pretty stoked.
And.. this Saturday I will be going to Rock in Rio! This Saturday’s lineup is Shakira, Rihanna, David Guetta, Calle 13.. other people who I don’t know.. I’m pretty excited. My friend who I played soccer with lives in here in Spain! Angel’s coming this weekend for the concert, so I’m pretty excited about that.
I was in Granada last weekend.. I’ll write about that some other day. So much to write about, so little time on a computer. Lame.
Hasta amigos.
