Wrap Up

Tuesday night = bad.

Wednesday flew off to Brussels and then took a bus to the train station, got on a train (wrong one) and went into Belgium countryside, then got on the right train back to the original station and got my train to Liege Guillemins and then got another one into Maastricht. Proma met me there, went to her room, changed QUICK, and went to a bar to have a "practically done" party with her exchange people.

Spent NICE days with Proma walking around the city and enjoying each others company. VERY happy to have seen her. Lots of fun and cooked delicious food! waffles with chocolate = amazing.

Made my way back to Madrid on Saturday, stayed in a nice hostel and then woke up the next morning to fly home. Looong day of traveling, but now I am home. It's nice. Smoked some cubans with my brother and dad today. Sad to be gone though. I miss everyone. Very very very very sad I didn't get to see Salvador before I left. "had to study for exam next day" bullshit. Miss people.

ULTIMO DIA

:( Super sad day.

Spent the afternoon with Tano. Went out to a bar he knows for some refreshing summery drinks and chatted and then went for a nice glass of wine at the bodegita before going back to the resi. GREAT way to spend the last afternoon. Although it was a bit depressing because there are so many people I would like to have a one-on-one afternoon with! Tano is a great guy though and I am glad it was him. Tried the vinegar-sardine tapa thing that is so famous. CHECK!

After our last dinner we opened up a bottle of wine in the sala to celebrate (Me, Angela, Pablo, Yago, Dario, Antonio, Andres, etc). Finished the one bottle easily so Tano and some other dude who is new and loves to show us magic tricks (they are amazing) went to get more. They come back with vodka and 6 (ish) bottles of wine. Every time I drank some they'd fill me up and say "to your return to Spain". Needless to say I got way more drunk than intended. Teary goodbyes. When Antonio and Dario and Andres and Javi went to bed I though that I would never see them again and it made me cry...it got worse later. Good last night, but sad.


Woke up the next morning to go to the airport to see my PROMA!

Torres Hair

Praise the lord...so much better!

HA!

Good conversation with the cleaning lady and the porter.

Me: Hello, good morning.
Her: Good morning. How are you?
Me: Bad.
Her: Why?
Me: I leave tomorrow.
Her: You're not excited to go home?
Me: No. I'm not looking forward to leaving.
Her: Well then, you can stay here with us.
Me: Ok.
Antonio: But you get to go see your family and your boyfriend.
Me: Yea. I know.
Her: And your boyfriend is very handsome. I have seen.
Antonio: How have you seen him?
Her: She has photos in her room.
Me: Ha! Yes, I do.
Antonio: Watch out Martha, she's going through your things!
Her: No, they're out and I see them.

I just laughed. It was cute and funny. I am going to miss everyone!

Birthday Celebrations

Crazy busy day. Wrote my WHOLE paper. Very happy about that so that I can hang out tomorrow with everyone. Also, went out and bought my birthday shoes from my mom. They are adorable! White asics with coral detail. love them.

After dinner sat outside with Silvia and talked a bit and then came back in to finish my paper up. Almost to the end people start knocking on my door and it's Pablo, Yago, and Angela with cake and "fino" which is a Sevillan wine/tea thing that is super gross, but Pablo, being from Sevilla loves it. It was Angela's birthday so we went down and had cake and fino with a bunch of people. Pablo eventually bought us sprite to mix with the fino because it actually tastes good that way.

Sat around the rest of the night chatting. Omeed and Nima are trying to get out here to see me, but they are coming tomorrow night and I am not spending my last night here before Netherlands in Madrid. I need to stay with these people as long as possible. I don't know how I am going to leave. Next Saturday though I have a hostel in Madrid the night before my flight to the US and Angela is coming down to meet me there so we can party it up in Madrid and Yago said if we give him a call he'll be home in Madrid and will take us out. fun fun fun.

Excited to see Proma.

Dario loves the show cops...weird. Antonio is like an old man. He always goes to bed so early. Random dude came down at like 1:00 and did some magic tricks with cards for us. lol.
Dario told us that he is big everywhere after Angela told him his calves were big. We started laughing and he was so confused and kept saying "it's not funny" which made it funnier.

Family Dinner

Today was filled with a lot of work on my paper. Research phase in completed and I am now in the outlining stage which is quite tedious but makes writing sooooo much easier that I am trying to push through it. Last sunday lunch in the resi and they DID NOT make paella. How sad.

Went over to Alex's flat today for a little English-speaking family dinner. We had wine, artichokes in garlic and lemon, macarrones ragu, and strawberries. Yum. Delicious meal and good conversation afterwords. By the time I started yawning looked at the clock and saw it was 1:00 am. Now I am back in my room and trying to work a bit more before bed.

Do not want to pack. ugh.

Baptisms and Discotecas

Interesting Day...

Sent an e-mail to Zac last night to meet me at Atocha at 1:30. My train got into Madrid at 1:09 and I figured 20 minutes was suitable to get to the south part of the city...wrong. It was Champions League day of course so the city was FILLED with people. Thus, the metro was a little slow and I got to our meeting place 1/2 hour late. Oops. Zac was not there. Waited around another 1/2 hour in case, but no sign of Zac. He had come to Avila yesterday (and eaten whiskey ice cream) so I had seen him, but was still bummed. Got a little sandwich for lunch of chicken and feta cheese and decided to go hang out at the Bernabeu for a bit and see all the soccer fans.

First: my train ride to Madrid I sat by this group of people who were enjoying themselves. They were passing around liters of beer (11:30 am). One guy offered me some a couple times and I declined. Eventually he asked me why I was going to Madrid.

Me: I have a friend there
Him: Well, now you know me so you have two friends there. Are you Spanish?
Me: No, I'm from the US
Him: Oooo
Me: But I live in Avila
Him: What are you doing there?
Me: Studying
Him: ooo...We are going to a Baptism, you should come with us.
Me: O no, that's ok. Thanks, but no
Him: O common! It will be a big party with lots of food - chorizo, lomo, tortilla con patatas...
Me: Uhhh...I already have plans
Him: You can see you friend tomorrow, come with us. It will be fun.
Me: uh..no.
Him: Well, you live in Avila, we should get together and get some food sometime.
Me: Well I leave this Wednesday to go back to the US
Him: Well we'll get together beforehand, can I get your number?
Me: (laugh) uuhhhh
Him: Do you like to go out?
Me: Yea. I go out with my friends...
Him: Well we will get together and have a couple drinks and some good food.
Me: Well, I leave Wednesday, Monday and Tuesday aren't really good days to fiesta...
Him: Can I get your number?
Me: uhh...(laugh)

We get to his stop

Him: Ok...well maybe I'll see you around guapa.

Train people are the best. Tale of my Metro encounter for the day:

On the metro with a TON of inter fans...they are bad mouthing Barca

Him: Are you a fan of Inter
Me: Not really?
Him: You happen to like Barca?
Me: Actually, yes...
Him: Seriously?
Me: Yes.
Him (to his friends): Hey! She likes Barca!
Everyone in our car starts chanting "Puta Barca Puta Barca" and yelling that Barca can suck it.
Him: Are you Spanish?
Me: No
Him: Where are you from?
Me: The US
Him: O...Joaquim (2 cheek kisses)
Me: Martha
Him: Encantada...if you are around tonight we should go out together
Me: I am actually heading back to Avila, where I live, tonight
Him: You should come with us.
Me: I can't
Him: I will give you my jersey if you come with us...
Me: ha, sorry.

Metro stops at Bernabeu and everyone gets off and we are parted...funny.

Madrid seemed to have more Inter Fans than Bayern...maybe just because the Italians were a lot louder, which was surprising to me. All the Germans were wearing their jerseys with leiderhosen (spelling?). Great look.

Inter won. Watched the game with Javi while an older guy staying here the weekend told us how he was rooting for Bayern because his wife was German. Then this older woman got really mad because the game was on both TVs and she yelled at us and made us move to the other room. Later another woman came in and apologized to Javi and I and started rubbing our backs as she said that we were there first and if we wanted we could use the tv. She was so cute.

Now it's go time. Only a couple days left and I have to write this god-forsaken paper.

Also, Villa has passed his physical, signed his contract and was presented as a Barca player today! YAY!