So Alison and I met up at 6:30 AM in the Plaza de Cuba to WALK ALL THE WAY TO SANTA JUSTA train station... it took like 35 minutes, we actually bumped into someone in our Interest Group who was taking the bus, and we got there before him.
So we were at the train station, and I saw my host dad there who was going to work in Cadiz, so he wished me farewell! And then we were on our way!
Hmm.. let's see, our hostel was really nice! Albergue Juvenil Madrid.. there were 6 people to a room, and we had our own bathroom (it was everyone in our program sharing rooms, so no strangers!). It was just very newish. Didn't have to worry about BUGS.
We had a 2-day metro pass, and the metro was SUPER easy to use, like in DC. All the signs were made very clear. EXCEPT IT WAS SO CROWDED LIKE IN NEW YORK. Actually, a lot of Madrid was very New-Yorky. I almost didn't feel like I was in Europe. That is one of the reasons why Madrid didn't impress me too much (also, I don't really like New York.. too crowded) SO BASICALLY I LIKED MADRID BUT IM STILL GLAD I CHOSE SEVILLA.
However, one AWESOME THING, which my host parents warned me about - I FELT SO FLUENT. NO ONE HAD THE HARD-TO-UNDERSTAND Andalusian accent!!!! I understood strangers who spoke on our tour groups more than I did Juan or Abraham! IT WAS GREAT. One lady, when we were visiting this place called Matadero Madrid (an old bull farm or something now turned into a Contemporary art space.. among other things.. it was really cool actually..), she asked if we spoke Spanish (in Spanish), and we were having a conversation to her and I could understand EVERYTHING SO MUCH. I FELT GREAT. I was like, we feel fluent here! I can hardly understand the Andalusian accent! And she was like heh me neither I never know what they're talking about.. :D But all that happened Saturday.
On Friday, let's see. I learned that the verb peerse means TO FART. So does tirar un pedo (throw a fart HAHAHA). OH AND ALSO we went to El Prado Art Museum, and we asked an Asian woman (tourist) to take a picture of our whole group, and she did. BUT THEN HER OTHER ASIAN FRIEND COMES OVER AND GIVES HER HER CAMERA AND JUMPS IN THE PICTURE AND DOES A PEACE SIGN AND IT WAS SO FUNNY AND CUTE. And we will never see that picture but that's okay. hehehe
Also, it was chilly in Madrid but SUPER HOT in the Metros.. We learned a way to say IT'S SO HOT (in a vulgar way heh) ... Juan was like 'Hace más calor que follando bajo un plástico' which means it's hotter than f*cking under plastic... And I know what you're thinking... WHO DOES THAT ANYWAY?! Well, I don't know, I wondered the same. Ask spaniards.
Later on Friday night, Alison and Brett and I were too tired to go out (after only sleeping a few hours the night before), so ... WE HAD PASSED THIS AMERICAN-like bakery called Happy Days and it had cupcakes and we WANTED IT... But this is the great part. We passed Happy Days really quickly at night when we were taking an obscure route back to the hostel. And so we weren't sure where we were going when we tried to find it again.. BUT I FOUND IT BY MEMORY AND I WAS SO PROUD. I was like BAHAHAHA I KNOW MY WAY AROUND MADRID. But oh my god. Because they're one of the only places to sell American products .. they charged ridiculous prices.. I only got a cupcake and a vanilla coke (SORRY NOT SORRY), but they had like.. PEANUT BUTTER for 6€, a tiny bag of goldfish for 4€, CAP'N CRUNCH AND LUCKY CHARM regular boxes of cereal for like 12€.... THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH BEING THAT RIDICULOUS. But whatever, otherwise it was so yummy.
So we got back to the Hostel and everyone was out, so we watched this Russell Crowe movie called The Next Three Days, which was SUPER GOOD AND SUSPENSEFUL. We watched it on Brett's computer, after pulling down a mattress from the extra top bunk and sitting on it on the floor, with the computer placed on a bench in front of us. IT WAS GREAT.
Oh my god, but before all the other people were going out, they were like.. pregaming in their room.. I didn't go inside, but they DEFINITELY had pot in there, because they all came out red-eyed, and I was at the computer room common area, and Juan just stared at me and then came over and sat in the chair, and was babbling and laughing about how the chair made noises when you sat back in it.. and I was like WHAT A CAMPEON, HAVE FUN TONIGHT lulzzzzz.
Hmm, then Saturday, on our way to Matadero Madrid, we heard a story about how one of the chaperones in Barcelona was on the Metro with her group, and realized the deposits that she had to give back to her group had been stolen.. SO SHE PRESSED THE EMERGENCY BRAKE on the Metro, and yelled (in Spanish) NO ONE IS GETTING OFF UNTIL I GET MY MONEY BACK... and then THE GUY DROPPED THE MONEY ON THE FLOOR and she got it! What a strong woman hahahah I would just be crying, I'd never have the guts to do that!
We also learned a few 'tongue twisters' or rhymes or whatever. They were"
Qué es esto? ... Esto es queso! (okay, so it's not a tongue twister but I just thought it was cute because it was about CHEESE)
Pablo clavó un clavito. Que clavito clavó Pablito? ... Clavar = to hammer and clavito = nail... I think the tongue twister is longer than that but that's all I got!
Oooh, then Saturday after the Matadero Madrid.. which was so cool, it was SUPER HIPSTERY.. I can't explain it, I took pictures though. Just a really cool public space.. Anyways, after we all went to get pizza, and we learned that Juan's parents were like.. protagonists of some pretty famous movie in Spain called Carmina O Revienta... and apparently his father's character said a saying about how 'Life is so beautiful, it almost seems real' (but in Spanish: La vida es tan bonita que a veces parece de verdad).. and apparently that's something his father says in real life, except now it's become one of those lines in a movie that like.. EVERYONE KNOWS AND LOVES AND IT STICKS OUT TO EVERYONE.. so apparently on Twitter and stuff people say it all the time hahah. And just, in Spain in general, it's a 'saying' or whatever now.. WHICH IS REALLY COOL..
We were also learning things about our astrological signs at lunch because Abraham and another girl in our interest group are really into that stuff.. I looked up some astrology stuff for me on some website on Juan's phone, and it said my 'Midheavens' sign is Cancer, and the girl was like 'Oh, what do you want to do in life? The Midheavens usually have to do with your career, and Cancers usually are very caring, like, you want to care for people...' And I was like well, I don't really know what I'm going to do as a job, but I've always wanted to be a mother.. Like, a career is important to me and I don't want to be a stay-at-home mom but I think my career would come secondary to having children. And she was like YEAH CANCER IS LIKE THE MATERNAL SIGN. and I was like AHAHAH OMG THE PLANETS. SO ASTROLOGICAL YEAAAAAAH. So that was kind of fun heh.
Heh, this all happened at the pizza place that CIEE treated us to... and Abraham ordered us all Limoncello shots after lunch :D
And when you're doing a toast, people always say 'Chi chi!' like the sounds of the glasses clinking.
AND ortera means TACKY.
Ahh, and after lunch Alison, Juan, this girl Ellie, and I went to Parque del Retiro, which was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. I wanted to see that exhibit of Los Anillos Dorados but it was closed.. I saw it from the outside, but I could only see lots of strings and not the rings.. But we had lots of good talks, it was really fun! I learned a lot of new expressions, for example:
No hacemos buenas migas = We don't click, or we aren't a good match.
Me apuesto a que/ Me juego que = I bet ....
Qué coño es... = WHAT THE HELL IS....
Cuela = It works! (It literally means something like, it slides right in... but like, if you're trying to say OH YOU CAN'T ALWAYS DO IT LIKE THAT, BUT IT WORKS... apparently that's what you'd say..)
Jugar al pillar - to play TAG
¡Te pillé! - TAGGED YOU!
Oh, and since I always say things like 'WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF I DID THIS...?' I asked Juan how to say it, thinking it might be something like 'Que harías si yo hiciera esto...?' but he said that sounds weird in spanish... and you would actually just say simething like '¿Y sí yo hiciera esto....?' which is like asking 'And if I did this...?' and just IMPLYING the What would you do? question.
Also, Juan told me that we'll sound more Spanish if we try to say AS LITTLE pronouns and articles as possible. So, I had said 'Siempre yo digo' and then he was like NO PRONOUNS, and then I said 'Siempre digo' and he was like OH MY GOD YOU SOUNDED SO SPANISH. And actually I totally did.
OH, and then I realized that in Spain, I ALWAYS get confused when Andalusians say R's and D's ... seriously, you'd NEVER think that you might get those two sounds confused, because in English, they're entirely different.. But Juan said a word that I COULD HAVE SWORN WAS WITH A D SOUND and then he spelled it with R and I was like WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?! We went back and forth saying R's and D's, and everytime he did it it sounded EXACTLY THE SAME and he was like NO IT'S DIFFERENT. It was so strange!!!!
And THEN oh my god we saw this Dance/Play performance called For Rent by Peeping Tom dance or theater company.. IT WAS SO STRANGE. The dancing was very interesting, it was modern, and shaky.. But oh my god. The show was MEANT to confuse. It was very surreal, and it didn't have a linear timeline, and I think it was trying to show how messed up the minds of the characters were, so not everything was actually happening.. but it was seriously the trippiest thing I've ever seen. And there were some parts that were just terrifying! It was very interesting and artistic for sure, but if someone when to that thing HIGH, they would probably go insane I HAVE NO DOUBT. Like, we were all super tired after walking all day, and some people fell asleep, but I couldn't because 1.) I WANTED TO TRY TO FIGURE OUT WHAT THE HECK WAS GOING ON.. LIKE, I was praying for that one scene that would just MAKE THINGS MAKE SENSE... and 2.) I didn't want to fall asleep and HAVE THAT SCARY SHIT IN MY DREAMS.....
You should youtube it, I think there's a small scene on youtube... or just google it.. It was so, so strange. I liked it, but oh my gosh. I guess like, something cool about it, was that it was meant to be interpreted differently by everyone. Like, the 'art' of it, was that everyone got a different story out of it. Because the plot is so... (nonexistent)... so disorganized that like, you try to make up a story in your head to connect everything.. but obviously everyone's story will be different.. I DONT EVEN KNOW. IT WAS SO STRANGE. AND BELGIAN. But they spoke English. I don't know.. it was cool though.
There is this girl Erinn in our group, who is blind, and she was like 'I WAS SO CONFUSED' and I was like GURL EVEN IF YOU COULD SEE WHAT WAS GOING ON IT STILL WOULDNT HAVE HELPED YOU. You didn't miss anything! heheheh and we laughed
Then later that night, I went to a Crepe place with some of the girls from my interest group.. but we hadn't had dinner and I was SO HUNGRY and not in the mood for sweets, so I had a Curry chicken crepe which was actually really good! But I do admit to MISSING OUT on Nutella and Banana and Strawberry crepes!
THEN LATER, Alison, Juan, Ellie and I were going to go to some bar for a quick drink, but they were all too crowded or expensive, so we ended up buying cheap beer at a chino and sitting in a little playground and just talking for a few hours! It was really fun. EXCEPT WHEN WE STOOD UP OUR BUTTS WERE WET AND COLD WHICH WAS TERRIBLE. But then I took a long shower in the hostel, which has WARM WATER, so it wasn't so bad. :)
AND THEN today we went to the Reina Sofia contemporary art museum, and saw Picasso's GUERNICA. But I wasn't allowed to take a picture. BOOOO THE LOUVRE LET ME TAKE PICTURES OF MONA LISA. But it was really cool. And then when we were leaving, there was a HUGE protest about to start, and it had something to do with public health, and everyone was wearing white labcoats, and it was SO crowded...
But yeah! FUN MADRID FUN! I'm sure I didn't see everything that I should've, but it was a great visit, and I did see a lot.
OH YEAH I SAW THE OUTSIDE OF THE PALACE. We just didn't wanna pay to go in. But the outside was beautiful!!
Oh, HAH, so we have this theory that a good amount of the male staff at CIEE are gay, and ALL OF THAT WAS CONFIRMED on this trip.. And there were some people that DOUBTED my gay-dar, and THEY WERE WRONG. heheheh Like, one kid thought Ángel and Consol were married and I was like OH MY GOD NOOOO THEY ARE VERY OBVIOUSLY JUST BEST GIRL AND GAY GUY FRIENDS. And Abraham too! SO IM RIGHT BAHAHAHAH. Thanks, GW!
I think that's it. Great time! Pictures later! Bwah!
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| Sorry it's blurry! Left to Right - Linnea, Abraham, Amelia, Temi (as the tree?), MOI, Alison, Ellie, Juan, Erinn, May! |
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