Run Like Hail

Well, it's been far too long. The past week or so has been more or less uneventful, though. I never thought I'd say this, but I missed blogging. I think that's the first sign of blogoholism, but oh well. I apologize, blog-liver. Anyway, now that the silly jokes are over, let's get to the good stuff:

The beginning of last week was pretty benign...I had class as usual, and it was more or less boring [as usual]. On Wednesday though, I bought tickets to Fuerteventura, an Island in the Canaries. I am more than excited to go, and I leave in two weeks. I haven't reserved a hotel yet, and I don't think I'm going to. So far, I'm going alone. I've never seen myself as much of a loner, but I'm thrilled to be flying solo. More on that later; let's continue.


Thursday, I went out with some friends from class. They're mostly older, but it's all good; it's nice to hang out with level-headed, mature people for once. We went to El Tigre, the place with the mountain of free tapas, and then we [after 45 minutes of searching] went to an Intercambio. I had never been to one, but it was seriously cool. Basically, an intercambio is a bar where foreigners go to practice their Spanish, but it's more like an excuse to meet foreigners and speak English. Either way, it's fun. I met this Scottish guy who knew more about American politics than most Americans. I was kind of in over my head for a bit, especially when he brought up Millard Fillmore's foreign policy. I also met a very...interesting Brit named Dan. He was decked out with hemp bracelets and super hippie garb and smoked hand-rolled cigarettes. He told me about how he plans on returning to England and having a drum circle in the center of Stonehenge, where he'll commune with God, or something along those lines. He was definitely a bit out of it, but I feel he at least made better conversation than the Scot. Anyway, we bought some beverages, then some more beverages. We then drank said beverages. The night was waning, and some of us wanted to go to a club. Mwafaq, a girl named Caroline, Dan and I ended up going to a pretty popular club, named Joy. Within roughly sixteen seconds of getting through the door, Dan disappeared. "Oh no, we lost Dan." That was the last we saw of him. Caroline, Mwafaq and I ended up walking around the club, then we got to dancing. I'm starting to get the hang of the whole dancing situation, as weird as that sounds. We stayed out until the club closed down, around 05:00 or so. We then got some snackages and ate while we waited for the Metro to open. We got home safe and sound, and I crashed instantly.

Friday, I went to my one class of the day, then met up with the people from class to go to a Shisha place. The place was nice, not too smoky, and it served some pretty decent sangria. We hung out there for a few hours, then called it quits for the evening. After Thursday night, I wasn't really in the mood to go out too late, anyway.

Saturday started too early, as my fellow study abroad-ers and I had an excursion to three towns outside of Madrid. We first went to Aranjuez, where we saw [yet another] royal palace. [Un]surprisingly, there was a lot of expensive furniture and countless rooms of little to no importance. But hey, what's cooler than looking at old rich people's old expensive stuff? I will admit that the gardens were nice, though. Have I mentioned that I have a thing for gardens? Anyway, we were only in the town to see the palace, then we piled back onto the bus to go to Chinchón for lunch. We drove for about a half hour, then got out and walked to Plaza Mayor. The town was of a pretty decent size, but there wasn't really anything to it. Apart from the shops and restaurants in the plaza, there were houses, streets, and probably a church somewhere. We had an hour or so to eat before meeting back at the bus, so we began to explore. We got about 2 blocks away from the plaza and realized there was nothing here, so we got some bocadillos and relaxed. I bought a nifty gourd-canteen thing from this nice old man, and I think I'm going to coat the inside with beeswax so I can use it for water. Neat. We met back at the bus, and went on to Alcalá de Henares, a town about an hour away. It is the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes, so we took the tour of his house, and saw some cool versions of Quijote [there was even a version in Georgian]. We then walked about the town, went into a candy shop, then went back to the bus for the trip back to Madrid. I got back, relaxed for all of twenty minutes, then got word that we were meeting for a friend's birthday party.

We met up and walked to a big buffet. They had some pretty decent food for a buffet, and the sangria was [as always] much welcomed. We got two heaping plates plus dessert, until we were all super full. After dinner, we had to split up, as Pan [the birthday girl] was unknowingly going to a surprise party. Obviously, we couldn't all follow her to her apartment without reason, so we went to a guy named Clayton's apartment. We hung out there for a while, drinking brandy and Coke and listening to MGMT and the like. We eventually went to Pan's surprise party [fashionably late] and mingled. [Fun fact: I hate the word mingle.] A few people were leaving, so we decided to go to a club. We took the Metro to Sol, and somehow thought it wise to walk the 20 blocks to the club. Oh, I hadn't mentioned: it was pouring rain. Sheets of rain. It wasn't even fair how much water was falling. Luckily, I grabbed a [classy] piece of cardboard to use as an umbrella. We finally made it to club Nasti, which turned out to be awesome. It wasn't so big, but it was popular, and the DJ was really good. We met some Icelandic girls, who got really offended when we joked about their @#$%&* volcano. We stayed out super late again, and I took a cab home, having not slept in 20-some hours.

Sunday I stayed in all day, got some work done, and relaxed. My parents sent me a care package with a heavy dose of America: ranch dressing, barbecue seasoning, Kraft mac and cheese, peanut butter and more. It was a much needed Americana fix.

Monday was normal class, Tuesday's grey and Wednesday too. Last night, we watched Atlético Madrid win Finals in overtime, and went to Neptune's Fountain for a crazy street party. Today was more class, and during grammar we saw some intense hail outside. In the afternoon there was more Atlético madness in Sol.
This weekend is San Isidro, Madrid's annual festival, so that should be exciting. Next week I'll need to find something to keep myself busy, as I have no plans for the weekend following. I'm excited for Fuerteventura, Morocco, and Granada...all within three weeks. Sadly though, this little journey of mine is coming to close. I have about five weeks left, and I feel it will pass too quickly. You can't have everything, though. Until next time, I'll be making the most of my time here. I hope to post again early next week, but about what, I don't know. Anyhow, hasta luego,

Brian

P.S.
I bought a bracelet off a French gypsy recently. It's ugly and unsightly and I like it. After I bought it, I heard the little old gypsy man she was sitting with say [in Spanish] "Just a few more bracelets and we'll finally have enough money to buy our tickets out of here!" It felt good to help fellow travelers on their way, and I think I earned a bit of Karma in doing so.