First WHOLE Week in Madrid

First Week: (+) 4 tapas

(-) 2 tapas: School
Monday we had placement exams and I ended up in the middle group, which was lucky because the cost of our books was at least 10 Euros less than the other groups. As of now I’ve already had 5 days of classes and am already bored out of my mind, can barely pay attention, and fall asleep by the 3rd hour. Oh well, at least my Spanish is improving?

(+) 2 tapas: Shopping, Spanish style
This past weekend I went shopping with Mabi and Natasha on the popular street Calle Princesa. We pretty much stopped in at every store because everything looks good and new and fun. I pretty much died inside Zara and wanted to build myself a home there. Spanish Zara > poor imitation U.S. Zara.

(+) 1 tapa: Parachute Pants
Apparently parachute/Hammer pants are alive and kicking here in Madrid. And they rock.

(-) 2 tapas: Apartment hunting
… sucks. Mabi and I went to see a couple apartments, got lost more than once, only to stumble upon closets worth 350 Euros/month. Then we got on the one metro line that was under construction for the month and had to take the most roundabout trip to meet our group for class, including 4 different metro lines and 45 minutes of lost time, which leads me to…

(+) 1 tapa: Madrid city tour
Mabi and I ended up being one hour late for our class tour of Madrid because of our Great Metro Ride of 2008. We met up with her group (mine was long gone) and missed pretty much everything about the history of Medieval Madrid but just in time for the walking part of the tour. Then we all met up and got sangria (which I couldn’t drink) and tapas (which I inhaled) with the teachers.

Kilometro 0 in Sol, where all distances in Madrid are measured from (i.e. Madrid to Barcelona)

(+) 1 tapa: Finding out I have 2 left feet
Some girls and I went out salsa dancing in Sol. It was very interesting due in part to the variety of characters we met and the dancing we explored. I was pretty sure I knew how to salsa after taking lessons in P.E. in middle school, only to find out I was sorely wrong and actually SUCK at dancing. I actually head-butted some poor man! It is quite possibly the hardest dance I have ever tried. Nico and Ariel, on the other hand, turned out to be pure geniuses at it and had the boys after them all night. In spite of my total lack of salsa coordination I still had tons of fun and also mastered the basic Merengue step. Now I know I am definitely never going dancing with my grandparents!

The salsa girls and 2 strangers we danced with at the club.

(+) 1 tapa: Finally meeting Nacho
Friday night everyone in the EAP group got dressed up to go

to this big club called Kapital. I invited Nacho, Jessica’s coworker’s cousin’s step-son (yeah, interesting connection), and I finally got to meet him after the numerous emails we had been sending back and forth. Unfortunately the bouncers at Kapital decided to be complete assholes that night and carded about ¼ of the group, and didn’t accept my international student id card as official identification, even though a few others used the same ID but weren’t carded. Instead, 4 others stayed with me and we went bar hopping nearby and were offered tons of free chupitos (which I also couldn’t drink).
Nico, Steph, me, and Mabi in front of the Banco de Espana.

Nacho 1 (Nico's friend), Natasha, Mabi, me, and Nacho 2 (my friend). He and I decided to make silly faces. I personally believe we made the picture better :D

Nico, Mabi, Natasha, and me in front of some really pretty hotel.

(+) 2 tapas: Sergio Ramos
… is really hot. We watched him play for Real Madrid in a sports bar near the colegio mayor. Fun times.

These days are passing by pretty fast, and I haven’t been able to keep track of time, or when any of these events happen. When I name days, it’s just a guess because I really can’t remember specifics at this point. All I know is, Spain is very interesting… read next post to understand why.