"Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings."
Not too much exciting or particularly culturally interesting has happened. Mostly just going through the motions of breakfast, metro, school, metro, lunch, metro, school, metro, dinner. Give or take a metro or two.
I went back to Zara on Wednesday. I got a dress that's white with a blue print, so I'd just call it blue really. I got it from the sale section so it was only €12.90, $16 . Courtney and Katy also came and also got dresses, but paid full price. I'm afraid I have trouble buying clothes at full price. That's probably why my wardrobe is less than adequate for European city-life. And probably the fact that I have no style does something for inadequacy as well. And probably also the fact that I'm very conservative about clothes I will wear. Right, as though none of you reading this had any idea about my clothing deficiency as I've spelled it out.
Also occurring on Wednesday, I ate lunch at a little sub shop called La Tienda Verde with Katy. It was actually really good, and I'm not sure what I ate because I just pointed to the lunchmeats and cheeses I felt looked tasty. I mean, I also followed it up with, "I'll have whatever those meats are and that cheese, and some lettuce and just a little bit of mayonaise," only in Spanish. As I really don't like lunchmeat that much, I found it surprisingly tasty. I decided to spend money on lunch because the food here at the dorm is... I can't really think of a word to describe it. I either hate it or I love it. And usually they make a huge amount of, let's say, pasta with tuna and they keep serving for lunch and dinner until it's gone. I mean they have other stuff too, they only make 1 or 2 more dishes than you would make for a normal dinner. So there's a slight choice, but sometimes I just get really sick of ham in absolutely everything I eat. And the smell of tuna makes me want to vomit, but that's thanks to Mary Washington not Estél and her merry band of kitchen ladies. Because I was sick of the food, and then noticed that once again the tuna pasta showed up at dinner that night, I decided to walk to Burger King or McDonald's whichever was closer. Burger King was closer. Do you know that the BK and Mickey D's do not have milkshakes in Spain? Pretty much no other reason for me to go to a fast food restaurant, so I think I'm safe from that decision from now on.
By the way, I learned in my Spanish Cultural Studies class, which is an incredibly interesting class, that the reason why Spaniards are obsessed with ham is because of the Spanish Inquisition... the one that nobody expects. (Haha, anyone?) Yes, because they way the it worked was the Inquisition would travel to different cities and invite people to come to them to privately denounce heretics/infidels/heathens/what-have-you, the tattle-tales. Then the Inquisition would call the denounced in for a private meeting and ask them to write a list of all their enemies. If the denouncer's name showed up on the list, the Inquisition stripped him of all his property and threw him into jail. If the denouncer's name was not on the list of enemies, then the denounced was declared guilty and stripped of property and executed or jailed. Pretty interesting game of psychology, huh? So anyway, to prove publicly that they were good Christians, one of the things Spaniards did was eat a lot of ham and pork because the other two religious groups they had and were trying to get rid of were Muslims and Jews. (They had already made a ton of them "convert," but a lot of times they just returned to their old ways. The Inquisition was a way to stop the fakers.) And as we know Muslims and Jews do not eat pig. My professor told us that Spaniards would just walk around eating a leg of ham or pork, paranoid to publicly prove their piety. On every street in Madrid, there are numerous bars with pig legs hanging in the windows or walls drying with a little cup attached to the bottom to catch whatever the juice is that runs down the leg. (No, I don't want to know what the juice is.) The smell when you walk by one of these bars or shops is just gross. I hate ham. It's in EVERYTHING. So there's an interesting bit of fact about Spanish Culture. My professor said that a lot of Spanish habits that we might find weird can be traced back to the Spanish Inquisition... the one that nobody expects.
In my Lit of Democratic Spain class, she told us we're going to have to watch some movies... but outside of classtime. She's scheduled the 6 movies for Fridays, the day we're supposed to have off so we can have 3-day weekends to travel rather than give us a fall break. 2 of the movies are in a film festival, so we'd have to go to a theater to see them. But the other 4 are DVD or VHS so we can watch them at school. There are only 3 of us in the class, so one girl, Stacey, and I are going to watch them right after class times. Glad we got that figured out. I was super pissed off about that. You cannot just take away our long weekends. But I do like the professor a lot, and she's taking us (during a class time) to the Real Academia Español. It's a group of writers who get together once a week at this building in Madrid to discuss words in the Spanish dictionary. Which word means what, what's slang, what's a new word, what's no longer used, specific vocabulary for specific subjects. THEY DISCUSS THE VALIDITY OF WORDS AND THEIR MEANINGS!! This is just as exciting as if someone told me they were taking me to the Oxford English Dictionary headquarters... if that exists.
It's gotten a lot colder now, mid70s during the day usually. But the sun is still quite hot, so it's very comfortable weather for pants, shirt, and maybe a small sweater or long-sleeve shirt. It's almost like fall weather, but there's a crispness in American air that's missing here. I think it's all the trees and leaves in the US that Madrid lacks. But I'm going to make it seem like fall air to me, because that is my favorite air. Do you know what's weird? I think since I've been here I've been asked for directions about 9 times, by Spanish people, obviously not madrileños though. Then I answer, half of the time with "No sé, lo siento," and half the time with "Ah, sí. Está allá..." And once or twice the person has looked surprised at my obvious non-native accent! Ha, maybe I do seem Spanish. I don't see how, though, as literally every Spanish girl is skinny with great hair. NO JOKE. I'm not being a self-concious girl on this one, it's science.
Last night the whole group decided to try to go to club Pacha... for the 3rd time. And I mean the 3rd time from the part where I said, "try to go." Yes, we've been in front of that club twice. It's an exclusive club, €15 to get in, unless you're on the list or you're with someone on the list or you're slut-tastically gorgeous and flaunt your stuff your way in, then it's free; and they can refuse entrance to people if they want. Last night, somehow, the girls and I got in for free by getting this girl we know from school, who I don't think was on the list but was cool enough to get in for free, to let us be "with her". And then some of the guys paid to get in. And then 2 guys, who I think are good dressers and not too bad to look at, were refused entrance. The bouncer said it was because the one guy looked too young and didn't have ID (bull, because they NEVER check ID). But he wouldn't let the other guy in either. So one of us girls, not me, said, "I'm leaving if they won't let them in." The guys who paid were pretty much pissed about it, but as they had paid they didn't care that much. The other girls were appropriately indignant and offered to leave as well. I, who was not excited about trying to get into an exclusvie club again in the first place, was rather annoyed at this sudden wave of ethics and morals that had come over us as a group. Had I paid, I would have stayed. But since I did not pay I left as well, knowing that were 2 of us girls in the same situation, none of the guys would have been "indignant" enough to leave after finally getting into Pacha. Then we stood out front of the club trying to get in touch with the one girl who had left with the 2 rejects. And after 2 calls to her in which she hung up saying "Call back in 10 minutes," and being quite freezing in the 50 degree weather with the alcohol buzz quickly wearing off, I gave the situation 5 minutes before I walked back to Barradas. Luckily the short cut is also the safe way. It's a bumping teenager and young 20s hang out road. Literally hoards of people on it. So I flexed my biceps and walked back just as Madrid was getting wasted and I was sobering up. I got into my room and the girl next door to me had been having a little fiesta in her room for someone's birthday since about 8pm (it was now 2:30am.) Only about 4 girls I think. But there are 2 vents through which I could here their conversations clearly as they were getting slightly more drunk throughout the night. I decided to just let it go, because I know I've been loud like that before with my friends and I didn't really think it would keep me up. So I went to sleep listening to them and trying to see if I could understand. I understood a lot, I think. Someone should be having fun, anyway.
Today I'm going to try to buy some... gulp... heels for my new dress, and a new pair of flats for regular wear. Then I'm going to go see "Alatriste", a movie about one of the wars in Spain during the Golden Age, with Viggo Mortensen, who apparently speaks fluent Spanish. 3 of my 4 professors have told my classes to see it. It looks really good. Tomorrow API takes us on a day-trip to Toledo. I'm excited to see it. And tomorrow night, we're all gonna get dressed up (in our new dresses for some of us) and go to a nice restaurant or bar or somewhere and drink wine. It's supposed to be a chill night, but I doubt some people will leave it at that. I'm so glad I don't have a drinking problem.
I went back to Zara on Wednesday. I got a dress that's white with a blue print, so I'd just call it blue really. I got it from the sale section so it was only €12.90, $16 . Courtney and Katy also came and also got dresses, but paid full price. I'm afraid I have trouble buying clothes at full price. That's probably why my wardrobe is less than adequate for European city-life. And probably the fact that I have no style does something for inadequacy as well. And probably also the fact that I'm very conservative about clothes I will wear. Right, as though none of you reading this had any idea about my clothing deficiency as I've spelled it out.
Also occurring on Wednesday, I ate lunch at a little sub shop called La Tienda Verde with Katy. It was actually really good, and I'm not sure what I ate because I just pointed to the lunchmeats and cheeses I felt looked tasty. I mean, I also followed it up with, "I'll have whatever those meats are and that cheese, and some lettuce and just a little bit of mayonaise," only in Spanish. As I really don't like lunchmeat that much, I found it surprisingly tasty. I decided to spend money on lunch because the food here at the dorm is... I can't really think of a word to describe it. I either hate it or I love it. And usually they make a huge amount of, let's say, pasta with tuna and they keep serving for lunch and dinner until it's gone. I mean they have other stuff too, they only make 1 or 2 more dishes than you would make for a normal dinner. So there's a slight choice, but sometimes I just get really sick of ham in absolutely everything I eat. And the smell of tuna makes me want to vomit, but that's thanks to Mary Washington not Estél and her merry band of kitchen ladies. Because I was sick of the food, and then noticed that once again the tuna pasta showed up at dinner that night, I decided to walk to Burger King or McDonald's whichever was closer. Burger King was closer. Do you know that the BK and Mickey D's do not have milkshakes in Spain? Pretty much no other reason for me to go to a fast food restaurant, so I think I'm safe from that decision from now on.
By the way, I learned in my Spanish Cultural Studies class, which is an incredibly interesting class, that the reason why Spaniards are obsessed with ham is because of the Spanish Inquisition... the one that nobody expects. (Haha, anyone?) Yes, because they way the it worked was the Inquisition would travel to different cities and invite people to come to them to privately denounce heretics/infidels/heathens/what-have-you, the tattle-tales. Then the Inquisition would call the denounced in for a private meeting and ask them to write a list of all their enemies. If the denouncer's name showed up on the list, the Inquisition stripped him of all his property and threw him into jail. If the denouncer's name was not on the list of enemies, then the denounced was declared guilty and stripped of property and executed or jailed. Pretty interesting game of psychology, huh? So anyway, to prove publicly that they were good Christians, one of the things Spaniards did was eat a lot of ham and pork because the other two religious groups they had and were trying to get rid of were Muslims and Jews. (They had already made a ton of them "convert," but a lot of times they just returned to their old ways. The Inquisition was a way to stop the fakers.) And as we know Muslims and Jews do not eat pig. My professor told us that Spaniards would just walk around eating a leg of ham or pork, paranoid to publicly prove their piety. On every street in Madrid, there are numerous bars with pig legs hanging in the windows or walls drying with a little cup attached to the bottom to catch whatever the juice is that runs down the leg. (No, I don't want to know what the juice is.) The smell when you walk by one of these bars or shops is just gross. I hate ham. It's in EVERYTHING. So there's an interesting bit of fact about Spanish Culture. My professor said that a lot of Spanish habits that we might find weird can be traced back to the Spanish Inquisition... the one that nobody expects.
In my Lit of Democratic Spain class, she told us we're going to have to watch some movies... but outside of classtime. She's scheduled the 6 movies for Fridays, the day we're supposed to have off so we can have 3-day weekends to travel rather than give us a fall break. 2 of the movies are in a film festival, so we'd have to go to a theater to see them. But the other 4 are DVD or VHS so we can watch them at school. There are only 3 of us in the class, so one girl, Stacey, and I are going to watch them right after class times. Glad we got that figured out. I was super pissed off about that. You cannot just take away our long weekends. But I do like the professor a lot, and she's taking us (during a class time) to the Real Academia Español. It's a group of writers who get together once a week at this building in Madrid to discuss words in the Spanish dictionary. Which word means what, what's slang, what's a new word, what's no longer used, specific vocabulary for specific subjects. THEY DISCUSS THE VALIDITY OF WORDS AND THEIR MEANINGS!! This is just as exciting as if someone told me they were taking me to the Oxford English Dictionary headquarters... if that exists.
It's gotten a lot colder now, mid70s during the day usually. But the sun is still quite hot, so it's very comfortable weather for pants, shirt, and maybe a small sweater or long-sleeve shirt. It's almost like fall weather, but there's a crispness in American air that's missing here. I think it's all the trees and leaves in the US that Madrid lacks. But I'm going to make it seem like fall air to me, because that is my favorite air. Do you know what's weird? I think since I've been here I've been asked for directions about 9 times, by Spanish people, obviously not madrileños though. Then I answer, half of the time with "No sé, lo siento," and half the time with "Ah, sí. Está allá..." And once or twice the person has looked surprised at my obvious non-native accent! Ha, maybe I do seem Spanish. I don't see how, though, as literally every Spanish girl is skinny with great hair. NO JOKE. I'm not being a self-concious girl on this one, it's science.
Last night the whole group decided to try to go to club Pacha... for the 3rd time. And I mean the 3rd time from the part where I said, "try to go." Yes, we've been in front of that club twice. It's an exclusive club, €15 to get in, unless you're on the list or you're with someone on the list or you're slut-tastically gorgeous and flaunt your stuff your way in, then it's free; and they can refuse entrance to people if they want. Last night, somehow, the girls and I got in for free by getting this girl we know from school, who I don't think was on the list but was cool enough to get in for free, to let us be "with her". And then some of the guys paid to get in. And then 2 guys, who I think are good dressers and not too bad to look at, were refused entrance. The bouncer said it was because the one guy looked too young and didn't have ID (bull, because they NEVER check ID). But he wouldn't let the other guy in either. So one of us girls, not me, said, "I'm leaving if they won't let them in." The guys who paid were pretty much pissed about it, but as they had paid they didn't care that much. The other girls were appropriately indignant and offered to leave as well. I, who was not excited about trying to get into an exclusvie club again in the first place, was rather annoyed at this sudden wave of ethics and morals that had come over us as a group. Had I paid, I would have stayed. But since I did not pay I left as well, knowing that were 2 of us girls in the same situation, none of the guys would have been "indignant" enough to leave after finally getting into Pacha. Then we stood out front of the club trying to get in touch with the one girl who had left with the 2 rejects. And after 2 calls to her in which she hung up saying "Call back in 10 minutes," and being quite freezing in the 50 degree weather with the alcohol buzz quickly wearing off, I gave the situation 5 minutes before I walked back to Barradas. Luckily the short cut is also the safe way. It's a bumping teenager and young 20s hang out road. Literally hoards of people on it. So I flexed my biceps and walked back just as Madrid was getting wasted and I was sobering up. I got into my room and the girl next door to me had been having a little fiesta in her room for someone's birthday since about 8pm (it was now 2:30am.) Only about 4 girls I think. But there are 2 vents through which I could here their conversations clearly as they were getting slightly more drunk throughout the night. I decided to just let it go, because I know I've been loud like that before with my friends and I didn't really think it would keep me up. So I went to sleep listening to them and trying to see if I could understand. I understood a lot, I think. Someone should be having fun, anyway.
Today I'm going to try to buy some... gulp... heels for my new dress, and a new pair of flats for regular wear. Then I'm going to go see "Alatriste", a movie about one of the wars in Spain during the Golden Age, with Viggo Mortensen, who apparently speaks fluent Spanish. 3 of my 4 professors have told my classes to see it. It looks really good. Tomorrow API takes us on a day-trip to Toledo. I'm excited to see it. And tomorrow night, we're all gonna get dressed up (in our new dresses for some of us) and go to a nice restaurant or bar or somewhere and drink wine. It's supposed to be a chill night, but I doubt some people will leave it at that. I'm so glad I don't have a drinking problem.
posted by Leslie at
11:36
6 Comments:
Leslie...I miss you...and I want you to come back. Now.
T-Bone
Okay, I'll try.
sounds like your having fun in spain little miss leslie! i miss you tons and just know that i think about you every day! PS all of the rookies have been told stories of trompy's amazing tackling abilities, so your going to have a name to live up to when you get home! ;)
love,Ashley
thanks, ashcrack. don't worry, i just hope i don't make them quit... haha, doubtful.
Can't wait for you to post a picture of you in your new dress and new shoes!
Did the guys who couldn't get into the club ever realize that you had left too? Did you never meet up with them that night?
Did you even find out what the deal was with the snotty roommate?
Love
your mother
the girls went and hung out with the guys, and told me the next day they had a ton of fun. i went to bed because i was sick of trying to coordinate things to everyone's liking. my roommate moved out about 5 days early. i dunno what the deal was.
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