November 13-15 (Taco Bell and Burger King)
So I was talking to Gonzalo one night and I was telling him that the first thing I wanted after landing in Chicago from Australia was Taco Bell. I even had my mom go out of the way in search out a Taco Bell, slightly ridiculous I know . It’s not like its even great food, and I can’t even really describe or justify the craving. I think they put drugs in the food to be honest because there is no real logical reason that of all food to crave, I crave Taco Bell when I move abroad. So anyways, I was telling Gonzalo all this and the GENIUS that he is did some research and found that there are like 3 in Spain, and all are in Madrid! So on Friday he called me after my private lesson and said he was taking me and Alissa to Taco Bell!!! Pretty amazing if you ask me. So we drive up to Barrio de Pilar and the Taco Bell was decorated/designed the exact same way as all the new ones they are building in the states. While the menu is a little different, they had all the classics and “Taco Bell musts”. While I am not sure if Gonzalo particularly liked it, he tried it (it was his first Taco Bell!) Yay for a Chicken Burrito from Taco Bell in Madrid!
November 20-22 (Doner Kebab, Take a Wok, ½ of a Falafeel, Doner Kebab, and a midnight pastry that was a ½ off)
So now that I have picked up 5 private lessons (I wouldn’t suggest any more than 5 for other auxilliaries) I am working about the same amount as I would be in the states. So when the weekend comes around I just want to sleep and relax. Lazy-yes, boring-yes, necessary-yes. But this weekend I thought I would make a real attempt at going out despite an overwhelming desire to just sleep and watch movies. So Thursday me and Alissa met up with Jasmine and Bethany and we were SUPPOSED to meet up with Megan, Rocio, Tom, and Lonely Boy at El Tigre. So we go to El Tigre and the line is ridiculous. People are eating their tapas over trashcans out in the street. Even if we wanted to join in on this, it was impossible to even get to the door, and don’t even attempt to get inside. We tried to get in touch with the rest of the group but that was met with extreme difficulty So we switched to Plan B…but we didn’t have a Plan B. So we walked around for what felt like an eternity but was really only about an hour. This is one of the problems of not being a “local”. We really only know the “touristy” areas but unfortunately everyone else knows those same areas, so they are impossible to go into. And then when we try just a random place the people look at us like “why are you here? We ensured this wasn’t in a travel book”. So after an hour of wandering, no food, no drinks, nada, Alissa starts talking about a kebab. BRILLIANT. What other way to drown your sorrows on a failed night than a kebab. So then we at least had a mission in meandering. So we saw this little sign that said Kebab, we went in, it was AMAZING, and my night was complete J
On Saturday, Alissa, Natalie, and I met up with two of the girls that they work with at a private academy, I can only remember one of their names-Carmen. So we went to this place that Alissa had gone to with a random person and she couldn’t stop talking about how amazing it was. (WARNING—WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ MAY MAKE YOU QUESTION MY JUDGEMENT AND HOW SAFE IT WAS, BUT I FELT SAFE THE ENTIRE TIME AND HAD A REALLY GOOD TIME, SO NO HEART ATTACKS PLEASE.) So this “place” was in Malesana, which is a neighborhood in Madrid. The actual place is called the Patio of Malesana, or something to that effect, and it is an abandoned building that a bunch of hippies have kind of taken over and have made it in to a type of community center, but its not technically their building. It’s controlled anarchy at its best. It is a community center in all aspects of the word because they give classes, have computers, entertainment, BUT they also serve drinks and allow massive amounts of pot smoking. So at first we just took it all in (I’m not even going to attempt to describe the really cool “graffiti” that was on the walls but know that they were all making a statement…my favorite one was a cow that had a world map on his side and he was drinking from a canister than had TOXIC posted on the side and all of his utters but one were being pumped into containers that had LETHAL written on this side, and then just one utter was going into “organic” bottles. Take what you want from it, but I loved it) So we got a drink, were chatting, and then I start hearing music. Reggae music, reggaeton music, hip hop music. I just couldn’t control my hips, I had to dance! So we go out of the room where they served alcohol and its like an open air concert. I’m going to try to describe this building, so bare with me.
So imagine apartment buildings that open up only to each other with a courtyard in the middle. That is what this place was like. So of course, it was open air. We were like on the 2nd floor, so we looked down and it’s packed with people just dancing, a Jamaiacan guy rapping, people are just loving everything! I wish I could have just bottled up that feeling. Think Woodstock and that is how I felt. While I couldn’t tolerate the massive amounts of marijuana smoke on a weekly basis, I would definitely go back.
Either we had the munchies from all the pot or we were just hungry, but we starting having a craving for a Kebab again! So we left the Patio, found a really cheap Kebab place, and then me and Alissa had plans to stay out, but decided to just go ahead and head home. So we get off the metro at our neighborhood and we hear laughing coming from this pastry place. We had just talked about how we had been eating massive amounts of crap. So we just look at each other, and start laughing. Why not?!?! So we go inside and its like heaven! They are all handmade pastries and 50% off after midnight!! We couldn’t possibly resist…it would have been a crime! So I ended the night with a full tummy and a fulfilled desire to hear some reggae music…only to be awaken at 4 AM by my roommate bringing home drunk Spanish guys practically yelling in my front room acting like the only English they know is “foreplay”, but that blog will be fore another day.
On Sunday Gonzalo borrowed a bike from his uncle and took me biking!! I don’t know if because it offered a sense of “normalcy” to my life in Madrid or because it reminded me of home, or because it was just the feeling of being outside—but I loved it! Pretty sweet guy, huh! To top it off, he made me a Gonzalo special sandwich after...what more could a girl ask for?
Cultural Note 1: Window shopping is an actual event here. I love going past stores and women are just staring at the window displays.
Possible Cultural Note 2: Either I have just been around some dirty people, or picking your nose isn’t as bad here. I don’t know how many times I have seen people knuckle deep in their nose and show no concern about the appearance of having half their finger in their nose.
School note: We were learning clothes in school the other day and we taught the kids underwear. So we were saying “stand up if you’re wearing a sweater.” “Stand up if you’re wearing a t-shirt.” Then the teacher said “Stand up if you are wearing underwear…..everybody should be standing up!” All the kids started laughing and stood up and the girl that knows the most English in the class shouts “profe, profe…no tengo!” We just looked at eachother and moved on to the next topic hahahaa
Tomorrow (Wednesday) Gonzalo is picking me up from school and we are going to Valle do los Caidos—its where Franco is buried as well as the soldiers from both sides of the Spanish Civil War…the history and political science major inside of me is pretty excited about it to say the least!
Thursday-Barcelona!!
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