Saying Goodbye to a Friend and Hello to a Couple New Ones

I’m going to try and touch upon some of the things I haven’t been talking about much. First off, on Monday we had a little going away party for one of my coworkers who was leaving. We had a little wine and she showed us how to pour it like they do in the Basque region, which is apparently when you cut two holes in the cork and pour it like she is in the picture. Just a coincidence, but Monday was also the day that myself and my other coworker were bringing in American food, to show off some of the things that we normally eat. The problem was that we didn’t have access to a microwave at work. My coworker brought in buffalo chicken dip and chips, I brought in breakfast potatoes, and my Spanish coworker that was leaving brought us these pastry-like things filled with ham (which were fantastic by the way).

The next thing is nightlife. While I won’t touch upon this too much, I do actually have some pictures of the clubs when they are empty (because we went super early to avoid the cover charge). It’s almost impossible due to the lighting in a disco to get a good picture, but aside from the color distortion, it’s not that bad. This is Kapital, it’s a five-story disco here in Madrid. It’s one of the most famous and also one of the most expensive. We usually try to go on a Thursday for a little bit because it’s cheaper, calmer, and just a more pleasant experience. It’s a little too much on a Friday or Saturday (imagine seven floors of people). I definitely prefer the Indie/alternative discos because I like to talk (a lot) and generally the people at the bigger discos aren’t as friendly or sociable. Furthermore there are a lot less Americans at the smaller discos, so I can practice my Spanish more. I’ll try and get pictures this weekend of some of the indie-discos.

And my last thing is my never-ending quest to meet Spaniards. I’ve started participating in some intercambio (interexchange in Spanish) programs because for one, they will help me practice my Spanish, but also anyone I can meet up with will obviously be from around here. Yesterday I met up with a girl from Valencia, who is working in Madrid for the summer (a situation very similar to my own). It worked out pretty well because she’s new here and doesn’t know many people, and although I’ve been here for a while, I know very few people from Madrid or even Spaniards that are currently in Madrid. Even if we were both dead tired, it was still a lot of fun. We basically just hung around for a few hours, got dinner, and then I went to go watch the US game with my friends (from America). She was actually fairly startled that all of the Americans were going insane watching the game; she assumed because “Americans don’t like football” that we never watch the games or even get excited. Oh boy was she wrong! Americans go crazy for sports and especially when there are fewer of us…we have to make up for up for it with extra insanity.

Until next time!