Last Week Recap

For those of you who care, I have decided to finish up my story of the Spanish Adventure.

So finals week in Oviedo, it rocked. Basically I was done by Wednesday. In the interesting way of things, I rocked my Translation final–got a 9!!! Hells yes, I thought I was going to get a 7, that was how my grade had been going into the final. I guess those afternoons studying in KIN with Miguel and Ariel paid off. I’ll miss you Rodrigo, though apparently everyone feels the same way, as they continuously imitated your accent for the NEXT WEEK, ugh. Vocab studying was great. I love sitting in KIN and mocking Mike for an hour, under the pretext of studying medical vocab. Curses, cause of course Lorena used the term that Socha mentioned, and I promptly forgot.

After finals, we had to celebrate, which took the form of staying out till 6:30 am on Thursday night/Friday morning. Hung in Asturiano drinking Calimochos, many Calimochos. They kicked us out about 4-5, and we hung under the giant Paraguas, porque estaba lluviendo, as always. About 6ish, we decided to attempt a food run to Micky Ds, only to fail as nothing is open at “reasonable” hours (aka hours convienent for lazy Americans) in Spain. Hiked home, under my umbrella, and felt sorry for the umbrella-less drowned rats.

Friday night was my LAST night in Oviedo, so I had to go out, even though I had a morning train (it was at 11, no big). We all hung in Mater for one last night of sidra, so sad. I tried to sneak off with a glass as a momento, but when I had to chase Lindsay down outside, and promptly slipped and slid 10 feet down Gascona, the glass kinda shattered all over my purse. Sigh… Met up with loads of people later, though many weenies were going home early. Something lame about having to catch the bus at 6 a.m. I liked Chris’ idea: just stay up all night, sleep on the bus and the plane! Finished the night up at Diaro Roma, drinking beers and stacking them, 3 or 4 high. Got a bit of dancing in and made it back home in time for a nap before the train, which allowed for more napping.

Got to Madrid with minimal problems, though the passes were all covered with gorgeous snow. Spent Saturday shopping in Madrid and enjoying the freezing cold weather. Met up with my friend Jolene and hung in a bar until 2 a.m., which was a actually a very quiet night for us. Decided to attempt to find her house, which was way the hell out by the Palace, on the other side of the river, damn near froze to death in the process. Comfy couch.

Airline fun. Ugh, I despise my country’s airlines. Seriously, I had no problems at all. Repeat: NO PROBLEMS FLYING 5000 MILES! Watched movies and drank beer on the Scandanavian flight across the Atlantic–just barely hopped over the storm which stranded everyone in Europe. Even in O’Hare, where I had to deal with the clusterf**k of Customs and stupid security, no problems. Experienced culture shock dealing with the sounds of English and ugly American styles of dressing, ugh. Got back to Ptown about 11 pm and passed the eff out, after being up for about 24 hours straight.

Now, I’m back, no more European funness. Sigh, it was great while it lasted.

Spanish ER

Dude, my weekends just keep getting better and better. First off, disclaimer: It wasn´t ME that had to go to the ER. But more on that later.

So Friday was cool. My host sister and her daughter came to town and we went to the movies, in Spanish por supuesto.  But I loved watching Planeta 51 anyhow, hilarious. You really don´t need to understand every single word to love that movie, and I think it´s way better than having to watch TWILIGHT (ugh why did people go to that?). Then we ate churros, yum yum.

So,  onto the night. Chilled in Mater with the sidra-snakes, which are wearing antlers for the holiday season. Then moved on to the Chupiteria, where we drank nasty Tequila-infused stuff for a bit. Then I wandered over to my favorite little bar, Paco´s and proceeded to watch Aubry play dart games with Logan. This consisted of her standing in front of the dartboard and having Logan huck darts William Tell-style over her head into the board. Everyone was impressed. And no, this was not how I ended up in the ER.

About 3, we all moved to this bar in el culo del mundo. Proceeded to drink Yegerbombs and danced a lot. Aubry and Shauna found Spanish boys. Now, here´s where the fun starts. Logan ran into this girl he knew and when she went back inside the bar, he stuck his head in the door to say bye. Note, this is exactly what happened: he stuck his head in the door.The rather heavy door smacked Logan in the forehead full-force. Cue one nasty split in the forehead. Some minutes later, when the bleeding still hadn´t stopped, Spanish guy flagged down a cab and decided that the ER was a good idea. I´m still not too clear on how I ended up being the escort, but it was probably because:

-I was more sober than everyone else, which ain´t saying much.

-I can be an interpreter, as I speak Spanish and English.

-I wasn´t pursuing a Spanish guy from that bar.

So, we get to the ER, all the while Logan is swearing that he hates doctors and really doesn´t like the idea of going.  But the first question that the nurse asks, just made me laugh. I say, he got hit in the head. She asks, was it an assault? Nope, just a door. Obviously, when bleeding Americans go to the ER, its cause they got a in street fight…

A couple stitches and one thrown-out blood stained shirt later, it´s about 6 a.m. Now, we go to another bar, which was really close to the ER. Why? Because it was Friday. After buying another drink, I realized that I was out of cash, ergo no more cabs. Which is bad because I didn´t think Sr. Headwound could make it home without staggering into a ditch. So, I walked him home, about 7ish in the morning, without realizing just how damn far away from everything his puta piso is…There were cows. Anyhow, I did the math as I walked through the bowels of Oviedo, and realized that copious amounts of alcohol, head wound, and blood loss was not a good combination. Ergo, I was going to have to watch his ass and make sure he didn´t die in the night. Ugh, fun fridays are not as fun when you have to crash at someone else´s place.

Cue the rantings from host mother–why didn´t you come home? Why didn´t you call me? Is your friend okay? I was worried…etc

And Saturday was fun, considering that I slept most of the day, went out and watched Jesse ¨get really drunk and shake his ass¨ under orders from Ximena. But it was a tame Saturday and I was asleep by 3:00.

Firenze and Venezia

Florence rocked and the hostel sucked. Basically we got to Florence and had to wander around lost for a while trying to find the hostel. And then the ass who owned it decided that we had to pay him 5 Euros extra a night FOR CLEANING. Ass. I wanted to leave but it was too late–but the next group that came in decided to throw a huge fit and threatened to call the cops. Ignoring such stupidity, Florence was gorgeous. We saw tons of old buildings and I froze my ass off.

The tren ride to Venezia was really annoying–we had to get to the station at 4 a.m. and then had to wait for a connection for 2 hours. Landing in Venezia was totally awesome! The city is impossible to navigate, cause there’s canals everywhere. But it´s completely beautiful and I really loved just wandering around. After the fails with the previous two hostels, Jesse and I chose this one–and it rocked! Gorgeous little hotel right off the Grand Canal, with pretty rooms and they let us store our bags there all day. Now, here´s hoping they didn´t notice that Jesse dented his bed…

I bought a cute Venetian mask there, and watched Ximena hit on gondeliers. We sat on a bench, and she commented on how cute this one guy was, and finally got up the huevos to ask him the following:

¨How much for a gondola ride?¨

80 Euros

¨How much for a kiss?¨

He laughed, and so did we…hysterically. Especially when the older guy went, ¨I work for kisses too!¨ Poor Jesse, ha! He was laughing his ass off the entire time, until we put a banana peel on his head.

On the trip home, we slept in the Barcelona airport, after sneaking on a train to get to said airport. I was really really tired when I walked into my class in Oviedo the following morning.

Trip to Italia pt 2: Roma the Shithole

Day 2 in Roma was our day to explore the Vatican and Sistine Chapel. It was gorgeous, of course, so I got to wander Rome with my boots still soaking wet from the day before. My plans to buy cute Italian shoes as compensation were derailed by a desire to gawk at Michelangelo’s insanity-inducing frescos (prolonged exposure to oil-based paint at close quarters is not a good thing, as those of us with High School Art can attest to).

We decided to take a tour of the Vatican in order to bypass lines, and proceeded to be hauled around by a  crazy Russian lady. I saw tons of old statues, as well as old paintings, nothing new there. But the Chapel itself–damn that was cool. The guards of the Vatican (in their dumb-looking cloaked uniforms) banned photos. I took one anyhow, but it sucked cause I didn’t use flash, not desiring to have the guards (who also wear tights) descend on my head and haul me out. St. Peter’s was awesome as well. Huge-mungeous, and I thought I was so over being awed by ancient cathedrals; I’ve seen enough of them. Nope, totally awesome.

Went to devour pizza afterwards, and then hung with Aussie girl till about 1 a.m. And now the fun begins. You see, Ximena had decided that it would be a brilliant idea to sleep at the train station. Ximena did not realize that the train station was open air. She further was unaware that the bathrooms close at 12 pm. Ergo, I had to leave the station and hunted down a Macdonald’s for a bathroom. Too bad for me, when I got back, everything was locked. So there I was, in Rome the shithole after 2 a.m., surrounded by sleeping bums, not able to speak Italian well, and with a dead cell phone. Jesus, could things have gotten any worse?

Anyhow, this Italian dude shows up. In all fairness, he was probably trying to be helpful, maybe. Offered me his phone, which didn’t help cause like a moron I didn’t know my friend’s numbers. So I got the idea to go back to the hostel, which was really close, and just sleep somewhere without bums lurking about. Unfortunately, Italian guy seemed to think I was going to hang out with him, but I finally got rid of him, after he kissed my hand…Weird. So I had to pay for another night in the hostel, ugh, and finally found my friends the next morning in time for the train to Florence. All in all, an inaspicious ending to Roma.

Trip to Italia pt 1: Getting to Roma

Okay, so we had a four day weekend. I and my peeps elected to make it a 7 day weekend and go to Italy! YAY! Yo, Jesse, Ximena, and Luz, two Americans and two Peruvians going to Rome, Florence, and Venice…Awesomeness definitely ensued, however there was, of course, great amounts of “fun” as well.

First, I had to get to the airport early Thursday morning, ugh. Then we landed in Barcelona and proceeded to explore the city for a bit, cause the flight out wasn’t till much later. Good, right? Ha, nothing is ever that simple. Well, Jesse got attacked by the Gargoyle dude in Rambles, while we laughed. I saw my old Boqueria (ie the place I bought yummy resaca-curing juices). But Ximena neglected to figure out that Girona Aeropuerto is NOT in Barcelona, it is 90 km outside of the city. She didn’t realize her mistake till about 2 hours before bording, which was way way too late to take the train. So we had to pay a crazy Catalan dude to drive us there. He got lost; he cursed, a lot, in Spanish and Catalan. It cost way too much.

Next on the agenda: Roma itself. We got into our shithole hostel afterdark. Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I am not picky about my accomadations. I will happily curl up on a crappy bed in a room with 11 other people (and have done so in Spain). But this hostel sucked! First, the guy at the desk was an ass–he wasn’t even old, so he didn’t have bitterness to excuse his rudeness. The common room consisted of a tiny room with bench and a TV…Sucky! It was cold. The rooms were really cold. The showers smelled like mildew. And this shithole cost me 15 euros a night for two nights…But wait, Roma improves.

The first day, we wandered to the Colosseum–which totally rocks. What does not rock are the assholes that make their living from ripping off stupid tourists. These morons in gladiator costumes took pics with us; then they demanded 5 euros each! I refused to pay them, but Jesse did so to avoid trouble. Dumbasses. Then Xi and Luz decided to take a horsey ride…around Roma…for lots of money. I refused, which ended well for me because it was, in their words, “de mierda.” Oh, it was also cold and rainy, and my boots leak like sieves. Jess and I found a grocery store, on the other side of the city, which means I walked like 10k that day, at least. But, I ate amazing pizza!

I’ve got so much more to say, but my fingers are tired. Will continue later.

Thanksgiving and Segovia, One Week Recap

Dude, totally celebrated Accion de Gracias in Spain! We all gathered in my favorite cafe, KIN, and ate lots of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and drank SANGRIA! Carmen was all, it’s “nonalcoholic”, which I suppose was because she couldn’t technically give her 19-22 year old students alcohol for Thansgiving dinner. Ha! I love Spain. Carti, the camerero, was very confused about the nature of the food he was serving us–the stuffing really perplexed him. But I got to feed my face and hang with friends while chatting in espanol, so I’d call Spanish Thanksgiving a success.

Took a trip to Segovia this weekend, and promptly froze to death. Brrr, I dislike snow landing on my head. Anyhow, Segovia is a cute little town with a huge aqueduct and lots of old buildings–which I got to explore. Also saw St. Teresa’s 500 years old finger–eww. But onto the recap.

Got to Segovia Thursday and went out looking for fun, which was decidedly lacking for a bit. But we found a little bar (actually Mike ran into a promoter girl who dragged us there) and I got all-you-can-drink for 4 euros, which rocked! Even if it was just calimochos and San Miguel (beer). Compare that to Jesse’s tire wine or Mike and Sam’s 4 euro shitty whiskys, I think I scored.

Friday we saw cathedrals and a freaking castle! Climbed up to the roof and took pics. I also was testing the swords in the armory and making disparaging comments about their practicality. I wonder if not seeing the No Toca sign counts as innocence? Friday night was interesting, with us hanging in the hostel for a bit. Lindsay, Sarah, and I found these 3 Spanish soldiers, Alba, Luis, and I forget his name. They were chilling there on leave, and the guys were very keen on hooking up Alba and Mike, much to his embarassment/delight. (He had the fortune of seeing Alba walk out of the shower and he almost fainted, ha) We all met up at a disco, called Toys of all things. Jesse and I kicked ass on the dance floor, though the DJ should have shut his face. And then the underwear dancers came out, about 5 minutes after Sam and Mike bailed–they were cute, and proceeded to dance onstage, in their pink bras and the like. I was not impressed by the dancing moves, and was waiting for the big black bouncer to smash someone across the room.

Saturday was Avila day, aka I saw a ancient city wall, looks of old stuff, and made sarcastic comments all day because I had a headache (caffiene withdrawls and slight hangover don’t mix). But Saturday night rocked! Sadly our soldiers had moved on, but we compensated by playing Kings Cup! Hells yes, so much fun, especially when you have to snort every time you laugh, can’t touch your face, and I had a line of mates following my drinks, ha! And Keith “won” the right to drink flat beer mixed with coke and whiskey, ugh vomit. I happily drug many others out of the hostel, away from grumpy professors who would yell at their drunk asshole students. We went dancing, found the end of an indie rock concert, and I got to bed at 2 a.m.

Wake up was too early, but I made the bus, got back to Oviedo, and starting writing and homeworking. So much fun, and this fin I’m going to Italy!

Oh, my favorite part of the weekend: Prof. Nichole calling Alba a prostitute for wearing red heels and a tube dress. Dude, it’s Spain! People dress up. And if I had been wearing camo-pants for months straight, I sure as hell would dress up when I got the chance.

Dance all Night!

Muscles are sore. Muscles are very sore.

Saturday Jess y yo decided to hop a bus to Aviles to see what we could find. Of course, we got off the bus and promptly headed in the wrong direction—toward the slightly ghetto and boring part of town. Yet luck was with us after all. I saw cute little ducks! And a strange sort of swamp, with a huge pumpkin patch.

But the best part was the beach, which was the best one I’ve seen in all of Spain so far. Gorgeous and totally deserted, with the exception of some crazy surfers out in the agua and fishermen hanging off the rocks. There was this cool rock face jutting out into the bay, which we decided to explore and take pictures off of. I also saw a posidean-isque sculpture poking out of the rocks.

Now comes the whining. I walked for a good couple miles in Aviles, got home, walked home and to Isla de Cuba, and back home. Now this isn’t too bad for a day’s work, but I then decided that Saturday is not complete without a bunch of dancing. I was tired, so after dinner I took a nap (note, this nap encompassed more than 2 hours, from 10 till after midnight). Sadly my nap was rudely cut short by Jesse calling to wonder where the hell I was.

Dancing, dancing dancing, and la vida de la noche en Oviedo.

I saw some guy dancing around Plaza de Sol topless. And met many Spanish people, as well as “Doctor” Mateo, a guy with uber-dreadlocks who seems to know half the town, gee I wonder why? HA.

Went to Funky Room for a long time, danced forever with all the people and then moved onto Studio18, where the music was all in Spanish and not very good. At this point, the group had dwindle to Brit, yo, and Jesse, with us heading off to Salsipuedes, a disco that’s the place to be once all the bars close down. Luckily we made it before the mad rush of closing time, and got to dance on the third floor (yep, it has three floors of dancing fun).

I got home a little after 6:00 a.m., which is a new Oviedo record for me, though not the best I’ve ever done (see Barcelona). Fun fun fun, now let the homework begin.

 

*Touch my Balls*

Wow, it’s been a bit. So all my adoring fans are doubtless horribly depressed that I haven’t been updating, right? Ha, like anyone even noticed.

Newsworthy events:

I got my charger! Ergo my computer works. Ergo I stopped using the computer lab that smells like stale cigarettes. Now to hope that this one doesn’t fry itself in the next few weeks.

Climbed the mountain the other day to see the giant Jesus statue. What a giant hike that was, 2+ miles uphill, with cars wizzing down the road around me, and the sky getting darker and darker. Of course, I missed the bus by 8 minutes, even though I literally sprinted down the last few minutes of trail. I had to freeze my ass off waiting at the bus stop for an hour. But my Camboyanas ran into a herd of cows. They were scared. Because the cows had horns. Oooh, scary.

Got free cider and roasted chestnuts last weekend. Also had loads of fun dancing and generally raising hell with mis amigos.

Rodrigo the Professor got sidetracked from explaining Spanish idioms, to complaining that his girlfriend of some 20 years refuses to marry him. Ha! He looked so annoyed, because she said no,  it wasn’t worth the trouble. Now he either refers to her as his companera or mujer (roommate and wife respectively) and doesn’t seem sure which label to use. Ha, so cute. Poor Rodrigo…

Last night went out to celebrate Jueves de Sed (damn, Thirsty Thursday doesn’t sound as good in espanol). Tochas and dancing, especially awesome. I met some cool Aussie chick and Logan decided that everyone had to try Tocame los Huevos* which were ubersweet but fun ’cause you top them with a lemon and slam the shot onto the bar to shake it up. In other news, the hot pink scarf of awesome dancing has reared its powers again. After making Jesse dance with it last week (soo maricon tio), which he enjoyed, I got Logan to do so as well. There is something profoundly awesome in getting straight guys to dance with a bright pink scarf in a club full of people. This scarf has some awesome powers, or perhaps it was the tequila shots? I also got to join in a Grease sing-a-long, which is awesome in Spain.

And now the weekend begins, let the chaos start!!

Time Is Perversely Speeding Up

FML, is all I have to say. So, after months of working properly, some dipwad in the banking business decided to screw me over. I went down to the ATM Wednesday morning and the machine decided it needed a snack, and ATE MY CARD! Bad enough, so I went to complain in spanish, determined that the fault lay with Bank of America, then called them up and was informed that, of course, it wasn´t their fault. Passing the buck, nice jerkwads but I want my money. Now, I gotta wait 2 weeks for a new card, which is slightly problematic as I have like 10€ cash right now…

Still I can have fun with no money, though I bought new shoes, hehehe, and they really hurt my feet (note, this occured before the vanishing card). Also, yesterday went on a wander with Lindsay through the sketchy part of Oviedo. I saw fields and horses! Seriously, only in Europe can the outskirts, aka redneckville, be so close to a functioning metropolis. We´re not talking a few minutes on the freeway; this was only like a 10 minute walk from city center. Wednesday night we hung at the snake bar and drank cider. Boys are funny, especially when they´re all planning how to pick up Spanish girls and asking the only female at the table (me) for assistance.

Thirsty Thursday takes on a whole new meaning in Spain, and we all met for salsa dancing about 11. That wasn´t happening, so we moved on to the next door bar and spend a couple hours chilling there. Dude Logan, getting cheek kisses from the bartender, and dancing with her is not as cool when she´s your mom´s age–though I suppose getting free drinks makes it worth while. Wandered to other places, including the infamous B12 and the plaza where we danced to bad guitar playing and homemade bongo drumming. Other highlights include Keith forgetting his jacket in the bar, and calling me 10 times to check if I had it, Suphorn buying her Co-ron-ee-ta while everyone else had twice as much cereza, me and Samantha doing backbends in the bar, and Logan getting picked up and slung over the shoulder of tall basketball player–tío don´t be pissed at me for not helping you out. It was funny.

Course, during all this, I knew that I had class at 10, wherein I had to give a presentation. Fun fun fun, at least it wasn´t a test. And my English major skills mean I can very easily BS whatever I need to say, even in Spanish.

Let the weekend begin! Let there be beer, vino, cider, and music! I will dance till dawn one of these days.

Bullets…

So, things of interest this week.

-I hate midterms, specifically in medieval Spanish classes

-Who woulda thought that I´d get to read about witch trials in Spain? Wow, so totally surprising…NOT

-María thinks I´m a total airhead for continously misplacing my stuff. To date in Spain I´ve lost my water bottle, sunglasses, conditioner and soap, and sadness, the gray jacket that I have lived in for the past two years. Oh well, excuse to buy a new one, haha.

-Nanoing without an active laptop is hard. I´m like really behind, but I am determined to hit 50.000 words by the end of November. Lauren, prepare to lose!

-I finally finished Lord of the Rings, coolness. Now my fantasy nerdishness is complete.

-My boots leak, my shoes leak, my feet are constantly wet. Crap! Must find a practical sol´n cause I´m tired of having soggy toes.

Bullets now ended. This weekend was very fun. Friday we went out en masse and ended up drinking lots of cider, hanging at parks, and dancing like crazy. I seriously love the schedule of nightlife here: we got to the cider bar at 11, went to the park for a bit, hit up the clubs at 2ish, and danced till about 4:30. Then I ran into some chicas de japón, Akiko you are a fabulous dancer! And we had fun times at Babia, which has a basement for dancing. No, Jorge, I was not chugging a mysterious clear drink. That was water. I was thirsty. Also, adored watching the Zaragoze chica beat the shit out of her buddies with a light up mariposa wand. Yeay, violencia de chicas!

Saturday was marvelous as well, with us meeting up some other Spanish chicas, Bea y company. Also added the Cambodian chicitinas to the mix–so cute and tiny About 2ish all the americans save myself and Jess went home, but we stuck it out till 530! Must have gone to 4 different discos, not counting the places we invaded to use the bathrooms. And those crazy chicas were still going strong, finding more and more discos to dance at! Dang, I need to keep up. Oh well, Jess got a good birthday celebracion.

Mi español is vastly improving, mostly due to my spending most of the weekend speaking it with my buddies.