4 Day Weekend and not much to do…

As I said before, it’s getting harder and harder to keep track of specific days, times, and events. So these are the highlights, or at least everything I can remember that’s worth talking about. We had a 4-day weekend this past weekend because there was a holiday on Tuesday, so we got Monday off as well.

(-) 5 tapas: school
ILP sucks so much. Last week we had 5 consecutive days of classes, so I subtracted one tapa for every day. I still can’t manage to stay awake, especially since I have a sugar crash from breakfast everyday around 11.

(+) 2 tapas: Susi’s Birthday
Since Sept. 3 was Susi’s 21st birthday, a bunch of us went out to celebrate. We tried going to this bar but it was super packed so instead we went to a restaurant where we got 9 pitchers of sangria and about 5 raciones (plates a little bigger than tapas). Everyone had such a good time that some didn’t even go to school the next day! Also, Chelsea showed up and I finally got to see her for the first time in Madrid. After the restaurant, people split off, so Chelsea, Susi and I went back to the bar (El Tigre) that was packed earlier. This time it was almost cleared out so we were able to get cañas and huge portioned tapas! We were so impressed that we made a trip back to the same bar only a few days later for even more tapas!!

Me, Chelsea, and the Birthday girl with her birthday crown!!

(+) 2 tapas: Joy with Chelsea!
Friday night was the beginning of the four day weekend for us UCers. Most people left to explore Spain and Portugal, but I stayed behind to play in Madrid. I joined Chelsea and two of her new friends for the night. We went to a discoteca in Sol called “JOY” at 2:30am and stayed until the metro re-opened at 6:30am. It was tons of fun dancing to all different kinds of music, but mostly European techno junk, all night! Unfortunately by the time 5am rolled around we were all sort of grumpy, tired, and hungry. Now we know next time we should take a nap before going out until the sun rises.

Che and me before going to Joy

(+) 1 tapa: catching up on sleep
I spent most of Saturday and Sunday getting the sleep I missed from going out all night. Woohoo

(-) 1 tapa: Apartment hunting
Apartment hunting sucks more than it does in San Diego.

(+) 1 strangely flavored tapa: Daytrip to Segovia
This was probably the oddest day of my extended weekend. 5 of us girls that were still here decided to make a daytrip to Segovia and we were supposed to meet at 7:30am at the cafeteria. I went down only to find out that it wouldn’t open until 8:30 because of the holiday, and ended up lying in bed, awake, fully clothed, for an hour. We didn’t even leave the bus station in Madrid until 10:30, even though our original plan was to leave by 9:30. Once we got to Segovia we went straight for the Roman Aqueduct and took lots of touristy pictures. After doing that we didn’t really know what else to do so we just took a lot more random pictures as we walked towards the city’s Plaza Mayor. Once there we found the beautiful Cathedral, attempted to go inside, found out we had to pay for entrance, and just decided to leave Segovia instead. Mabi, angered by the entrance fee, renounced her religion (Catholicism) on the spot. I led us in the wrong direction, but almost to the Alcazar, but we were too hungry to do anything so we just walked until we found cheap food. After eating we took the 1.5hr, 12Euro bus ride back to Madrid. We left thinking Segovia was a beautiful city, but we were mostly unimpressed because it was so small and sleepy. We stopped in a pastry shop right when we got back to Madrid, and it immediately started pouring. We were only about 10min walking from our dorm, but instead we opted for a taxi ride so we wouldn’t get wet. By the time dinner rolled around it seemed like we hadn’t even gone to Segovia, and we concurred that it was in fact one of the weirdest days/daytrips any of us could remember. That night was also the craziest thunder/lightening/hailstorm ever!!!!

Segovian Aqueduct

Me, Susi, Ariel, Natasha: boyband pic atop the aqueduct

Susi, me, and Natasha outside the Cathedral

Natasha (who never made it into the air in any of the pictures), Mabi (who worked really hard to get up), me, and Ariel (who usually made it jumping in the frame).
One of the many, many attempts at a jumping picture while we were wondering what to do with our time in Segovia. This was the closest we got to all being in the air at the same time.