A fast paced life.

Alright, we're in dire need of a catch-up, otherwise the havoc and chaos in Madrid and my first impression of Granada will go completely undocumented. Not good! This entry is going to be super long and quite detailed, so please don't get too bored and realize that this is a quick way for me to journal as well as to relate my stories to all of you. Oh, and a word of warning—to all the family and friends (aka teachers) that are following my blog, please understand that I'm a 19 year old girl in Europe studying abroad, so there will be references to drinking and clubbing. If you find this either unacceptable or are unprepared for this, stop now! :) I will no longer give warning in my blogs, just know that if you're reading this almost anything is up for grabs, so don't go into a state of shock and call my parents or beg God to forgive me or whatnot. I'm in España, need I say more? 

Madrid: Overall, the city was muy grande for me (way too freaking big). It's a cosmopolitan type city like NYC, London, Paris, etc. Tons of people, tons of tourists, from everywhere in the world. Upon initial arrival I was in an extremely exhausted, very surreal state where I could not for a second comprehend the fact that I was located in España and my family and friends were still far behind in Arlington, Washington. Almost immediately I latched on to my roommate, Courtney, from Memphis, Tennessee, and we've pretty much been inseparable since. We've also been hanging out with Shannon from Texas (city unknown....Temple maybe?), and the three of us have had a blast together exploring Madrid (read further for interesting details!)

Anyways, my very favorite tourist activity that we partook in was visiting El Prado museum, which houses some of the most famous and quality paintings in the world. I was surprised and impressed to see Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez, because I remembered studying that painting back in Señor Latorre's class in 10th grade. I could have stayed in the Prado for many hours longer, but our time was crunched so I only saw the most famous, tour-guide explanation worthy paintings. The Royal Palace was whatever, I didn't care for it much. Once you've seen one palace you've pretty much seen them all, and the King's lunch, dinner, sleeping, dressing rooms get old. El Escorial, an hour bus ride away from Madrid, was amazing. Our tour guide was the cutest old man, and he was so funny. Everyone is so touchy feely here, the tour guide grabs our arms, guides us where we need to go, everyone greets one another with a kiss on each cheek; personal space is not considered important, or really existent for that matter. I kind of like it, surprisingly. El Escorial is a centuries old monastery that is still in use today. It's massive, with something like 11 miles worth of corridors and 10 acres in size or some gargantuan size like that. I have a wild imagination, so I was definitely traveling back in time to when the 16th century monks spent their entire days walking the halls of the monastery, spending their days in silence, praying. Quite cool. However, I can't help but to admit that I keep thinking about the Da Vinci Code and how some of these European historical landmarks were the locales for some creepy happenings, even if they were holy. Historically correct, I know, right!? 

Honestly, the nightlife in Madrid is amazing. We got into 3 clubs for free and got all free drinks simply because we're females. Oh, the societal standards we live in! We only went to the clubs one night, the other nights we went out for sangria with the entire API group or out for “churros y chocolate.” Delicioso! Club numero uno: Free, and a free “sex on the beach” drink. Very smoky, and the three of us got the stink eye from a young Spaniard woman who apparently didn't want any American girls there. We kind of received the stare down everywhere we went, though. Think about it. We have Shannon—tall, freckles, strawberry blonde hair, very pale. Courtney—beautiful, African American with a cute little figure and a sassy attitude, and me, tall and all curly blonde haired and big eyed, not to mention that I smile at everyone, girls apparently don't really do that here. We stick out, our little trio. By the way, lots of the Spaniards call me “rubia” here, meaning blonde, which is strange because at home I'm just the boring dirty blonde! Anyways, here we meet Freddie, Oscar, and another whose name escapes my memory. Freddie seemed to be infatuated with me, and explained that in Spain “we kiss” and called me mi amor countless times as we left and made our way to a new locale...bar hopping, we couldn't stay long in one place!

Club numero dos: kinda sketch, lots of older people, and the music was pretty unfamiliar, but fun in a Spanish salsa sort of way. We headed to the dance floor, and we soon discovered we were being tracked by a few gentlemen. This reinforced our conclusion that we can't really enter a Spanish club unnoticed. Awesome! Here...not so much. :) Drunk man grabs Shannon and starts tango-ing or something with her, and then 6'6” 135 pound disco man starts dancing with Courtney. And over to me comes the prize of the group, and I'm actually not even being sarcastic. A tallish guy, sort of Spanish/Middle Eastern looking comes up and we dance a little, chat a little, I start in Spanish then discover that he's British (awesome, I know right!). He seems to take a liking to me, and asks if I'd like to have a drink with him. Upon my saying yes, he wheels toward the bar to grab something. Thinking like a truly responsible 19 year old young lady, I follow him, because nobody is giving me a drink that I don't see leave the bartender's hand! :) Ha....so my friends were a bit weirded out by disco man and drunkie, and it was apparent that they were itching to leave.  So after chatting with Sonny (el British cute man) about school, soccer, and a variety of other random topics, I say it was wonderful to meet him but I have to leave. He promptly requests my phone number. I don't even know my phone number here! I'm in a foreign country. I will only be in Madrid for two more days. This guy is 5 years older than me (not a big deal, but ya know). I've never even had a guy ask for my number, much less a foreign guy who I literally just met and I don't even know how expensive the phone bill would be to talk to him. These were the many things going through my mind, some of which I explained, some of which I didn't. So, I said no, much to his disappointment. He sent me off with a peck on the forehead, saying, “Well, here's to the first and last time we meet, MacKenzie.” …..and I left with a wave and a smile. I kind of regret not getting his number. 

And club numero tres: Ladies Night: Free entry, free drinks. My kind of place, I like bargains. Oh, and lots of muchachos. We were first humored by the completely serious bartender who did not show one ounce of emotion, and although he was fairly attractive, it was apparent that the bar was the last place in the world he wanted to be. Oh, by the way-mixed drinks in España=half alcohol, half mixer. Not so tasty. Here we encountered some very humorous young guys that were a lot of fun to practice Spanish with, dance, and laugh and take pictures. Courtney meets Javier, and their potential love is now long in the works, because she wasn't a baby and got his number when he suggested. Overall, such a fun night of clubbing, a taste of the nightlife in Madrid, and we were exhausted the next morning with four hours of sleep but can't wait to do some more dancing here...

Moving on. I shouldn't go into as much detail as that because it takes forever but the first Spanish clubbing night was too memorable to not document. We're now in Granada. Courtney and I are living with our host family, Marí Carmen and her husband Pepi. They are in their 40's or 50's and speak absolutely no English, not even hello! They are so funny and they like to go out and party a bit themselves! We have our own bedrooms which I have just purchased a fan for, as there is no AC and it's like 95 degrees all the time. The food is...interesting. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day here, and our lunches that Marí Carmen makes us have been getting progressively better. We eat bread for breakfast every day, and for dinner it's usually a sort of hodge podge of fruit, cheese, bread, and usually some strange thing that we aren't sure what it is but we still eat it anyways. They don't eat much meat here. It's pretty much lots of carbs: bread, potatoes, fruit, etc. We have been practicing our Spanish as much as possible. I mostly hang out with Shannon and Courtney, because we like to be away from the big group. API is great for a starter but it's definitely harder to meet locals when you're in a group of 10 Americans than if you're with only 3. We have discovered a cheap bar for drinks and tapas, a Chinese place that is small and not filled with Americans. 

Today I took my intensive language placement test and I placed into the high intermediate class for the month of September. I will have 4 months of intensive language so by the time December rolls around, I should have completed the high intermediate, advanced, high advanced, and superior language classes. And next semester I will be more than prepared to take the Hispanic Studies program, because my Spanish should be so much better by then. School starts on Thursday and I seriously can't wait, as dorky as that sounds. I just can't wait to learn more in class and get more comfortable with speaking so that I can utilize it more in my everyday life here. I'll be going to class from 9-1 Monday-Friday. Good schedule except for the fact that many students party until 6 am, even on school nights. 

Today Shannon, Courtney and I made a pact to speak in Spanish for our walk back from the CLM (Centre de Lenguas Modernas) and we ended up speaking Spanish straight through for probably an hour and a half. It's tough, trust me. We went and hung out at Shannon's house (her mamá allows her to have guests, ours doesn't) and there we met an 18 year old guy named Tomás and got some practice speaking with him. He was fixing the shower in their bathroom, and we're hoping to get his number so that we can hang out with him and practice Spanish some more! I really can hardly believe how much my confidence in speaking and listening have both improved over only a week, I can only imagine what the progress will be like after an entire semester here with school!

Well, that is all for now I guess, I am off to the internet cafe to post this, (I'm writing in mi casa, but we don't have internet here), and then we're going to the bars tonight to celebrate our scores on the placement exam! Till next time, hope I didn't bore you too much with my stories! :) 

Hasta luego, MacKenzie