cheap wine does not = good night.

So last weekend was an interesting experience. Saturday was crazy. Some of the girls and I went to a flamenco show. We got paella (a popular Spanish dish), sangria, crema catalana (which is like crème brule) and a great show. It was all live music and the dancers were great. This one guy who looked like Wayne Newton with a curly euro-mullet was like the godfather of dance and could move his feet like I’ve never seen. He also sprayed sweat everywhere every time he moved.
After that, in order to not waste all of our money on overpriced drinks, we decided to just go buy some bottles of wine at a convenience store. Well, the rest of the night I would liken to Halloween set in public transportation, for those of you who were there. But like the trooper I am, I managed to dance until 5am or so and felt fine the next day. 

Sunday I went to a movie, which was funny. It was in English (I was not about to pay to watch an entire movie in Spanish). We saw Eastern Promises (which wasn’t that great) so some of it was in Russian and then the subtitles were in Spanish. So I missed a bit here and there… But the theater was like the size of our living room and the screen the size of our TV.

That night I ate at my Spanish friend’s house with him and his family. The whole situation was pretty hilarious. My Spanish sucks (and I was too nervous to try very hard), and they didn’t speak much English. So it was mostly talking through him. And the meal was ham, ham, and duck pate (for those of you who don’t know, I hate ham). I gave it all a shot but I think it was obvious I wasn’t a fan. Anyway, it was a good experience and they were really nice.

This week has been good. I started my business class Tuesday and it is yet another interesting experience. The Spanish kids just kind of talk to each other over the teacher. Our teacher is from Chile and her English is good but she still likes to make up words (like foundator, and Bens & Jerrys, and instead of attendance she says assistance). Wednesday I took a different way and got lost with about 10 minutes to get to class. Every time I get off the metro at a new stop I have to find some landmarks and orient myself. In this case, all I needed was the huge Arc de Triomf. And I couldn’t see it. And so I walked in a huge circle and then when I finally saw it, had to SPRINT to class. I looked like a fool and at one point actually had a dog chasing me. When I got there, the door was locked but luckily she was still letting people in. All the Spanish people kind of snickered at me and I had to sit by two Spanish guys that played hangman and talked the entire class. Did I mention I was drenched in sweat? Not embarrassing at all…

Tonight some of my friends and I are planning on going to a karaoke bar which I imagine will be hilarious! I'm hoping to catch some Spaniards singing songs in English. Next weekend we are planning to head to Sitges for Carnaval-- which is like Mardi Gras/Halloween I guess. I'm pretty excited :)

love and miss you all.