Monday, April 28, 2003
PART II
And so after my little adventure in Salamanca it was time to head down to the town where my family live for easter week. I was looking forward to a week of sun, sea and sand but unfortunately it happened to be the rainiest, wettest easter week in 50 years. Why does it always happen to me?? sigh. My family were very pleased to see me to say the least and I spent the whole time eating - no lie - i don't think I even went an hour without being fed something and I never ate in the same house twice so that just shows how many people I was made to visit.
I also went and saw some of the easter processions when it wasn't raining, some had to be called off because of the rain and my oh my did the people bawl their eyes out..! I have to admit I was a little concerned when I first saw the processions as the people are all dressed up in Klu Klux KLan type outfits.. slightly worrying .. and they parade around followed by Christ on a huge box thing that people PAY money to carry around on the back of their necks for about 6 hours - this thing weighs about 3 tons. Was there ever a better example of how crazy this nation is?
Anyway following Jesus is the Virgin Mary on another huge box thing also weighing 3 or 4 tons. Each procession belongs to a different church and each one has its own Jesus and Mary. I went to one procession with the son of one of my auntie's friends who was about my age. He was explaining everything to me and also telling me about how he was going to take part in a procession. When we got back to his house he wanted to show me the outfit he would be wearing (another Klu Klux Klan affair in a nice shade of purple) and then he showed me his room, on the wall instead of posters of semi naked women and cars he had a picture of his Virgin Mary and his Jesus.. oh dear.
I was only originally planning to stay there Monday to Friday but in the end my grandma went on at me so much about spending so little time their that I changed my train ticket to an 8 hour bus journey just so I could stay a couple more nights, aren't I just the sweetest grandchild in the world.
It was the worst bus journey of my life. 8 hours with a screaming baby is not my idea of fun, but anyway, got back to Madrid and I thought that it would be nice to go out. I wasn't planning a late one as auntie was flying in at 10am the next day, but you guessed it, I was out until 6 .. oh well.. as it turned out auntie called me to say I didn't have to meet her at the airport and I could meet her at the hotel.. which was only the Ritz
She booked it for a birthday surprise/treat - I have to say it was pure class... every time we left the room something would appear as if by magic.. flowers in the bathroom, fresh fruit, chocolates on the pillows... very luxurious.. Unfortunately my ladylike grand entrance did not go quite as planned. When my taxi pulled up and the doorman opened the door for me I managed to get out of the taxi and fall straight into a bush.. hmmmmm classy as ever.
I then got my foot trapped in the revolving door which was being pushed open for me, it was quite shameful. It didn't help that the concierge was sex on a stick and witnessed the whole unfortunate incident.. oh foolish me..
The rest of my stay did run like clockwork though and I lived it up big style.. shopping, champagne, lunch, coffee, haircut (also at the Ritz, how convenient to have a hairdresser on site don´t you think) cocktails, all highly sophisticated, and when we checked out I even managed to restrain from stealing a coat hanger even though they were very cool. I was very proud of myself i have to say.
Plus the doorman was also nice enough to open the door to my room when I strolled in at 5.30am keyless and pissed ..how nice of him!..
All in all i had a really good 21st .. thanks for all cards, messages, calls etc
Thursday, April 24, 2003
Crazy Times - Part 1
Have had a pretty hectic last few weeks and at last its rest time so I shall update you all on my activities.
Where do i start? Oh yes, well .. a couple of weeks ago it was quite hot so my house mate and I decided to go and sunbathe in one of Madrid's many plazas. Even this you can't do in peace- what with typical Spanish and Italian men wandering by making leery comments. One in particular giving us cause for concern as he wandered by backwards and forwards about 5 times! In the end we needn't have worried as played for the US rugby team (no, i didn't know they had a team either!) and he just wanted to give us some free tickets for a world cup qualifying match against Spain the next day, cool! - even though it was on the condition we cheered for them! ha! as if!
We went to the match and cheered for the Spanish team along with everyone else even though they lost dismally to the bloody yanks.
Anyway that night we made an impulsive decision to visit Salamanca, a city thats about 2 and a half hours east of Madrid. So, off we trot at 8pm to the coach station and hop on a bus. On the way we became slightly concerned when all the hostels we called turned out to be full, but like the true adventurer that i am i took in all in my stride and after arriving at 10.30 with no accomodation to speak of we came to the decision that my flatmate would pull a random so that we could all sleep on their floor - a plan and a half if ever their was one..but luckily for her in the end we managed to find a couple of rooms ..
Having dumped our stuff and got changed we thought a quiet little drink and a meal were called for so that we could have a good nights sleep in order to do some sightseeing the next day...
8am the next morning we were still drinking, so much for the quiet one. The atmosphere in Salamanca was really good though and we had such a good laugh. We must've visited every bar in the whole of the city. I'd definately reccommend a visit, the men are really gullible as well.. I managed to get away with some unbelievably ludicrous tales!! The next day after 4 hours sleep I wasnt feeling so chirpy, but my adventurer's spirit shone through and we set out on a quest to find the legendary frog of Salamanca (amongst the intricate carving's on the university wall there is somewhere carved a frog the story goes if you can find the frog without any help you'll be married within a year.. dun dun duh)
I began to get the feeling that I am never destined to be married when we couldnt even find the wall. You'd think it would be easy being on the facade of the uni.. but no.. 3 hours later and after having spent a long time staring at a totally different wall which didn't even have any carvings on it, we still hadnt found it. You'd think they'd put up signs.. ´The wall with the frog´ or something, eventually after asking loads of people we got there, turns out we had walked right by the street and been about 10 metres away from it not once but at least 10 times, anyway, I began to look for the frog but some annoying guy kept trying to point it out and therby ruin my chances of marriage, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep concentrating on the search when I had my fingers in my ears singing la lalalaa. In the end, I am ashamed to say, I gave up and looked in the guide book..
The frog didnt even look like a frog , it just looked like a bit of stone.. I was highly disappointed..
hmm I seem to have gone on a fair bit, and I need to get going so I will continue soon
in part 2 - S visits her crazy family in Andalucia and Bday stay at the Ritz... I bet you can't wait.. I can just see the excitement on all your faces!
Where do i start? Oh yes, well .. a couple of weeks ago it was quite hot so my house mate and I decided to go and sunbathe in one of Madrid's many plazas. Even this you can't do in peace- what with typical Spanish and Italian men wandering by making leery comments. One in particular giving us cause for concern as he wandered by backwards and forwards about 5 times! In the end we needn't have worried as played for the US rugby team (no, i didn't know they had a team either!) and he just wanted to give us some free tickets for a world cup qualifying match against Spain the next day, cool! - even though it was on the condition we cheered for them! ha! as if!
We went to the match and cheered for the Spanish team along with everyone else even though they lost dismally to the bloody yanks.
Anyway that night we made an impulsive decision to visit Salamanca, a city thats about 2 and a half hours east of Madrid. So, off we trot at 8pm to the coach station and hop on a bus. On the way we became slightly concerned when all the hostels we called turned out to be full, but like the true adventurer that i am i took in all in my stride and after arriving at 10.30 with no accomodation to speak of we came to the decision that my flatmate would pull a random so that we could all sleep on their floor - a plan and a half if ever their was one..but luckily for her in the end we managed to find a couple of rooms ..
Having dumped our stuff and got changed we thought a quiet little drink and a meal were called for so that we could have a good nights sleep in order to do some sightseeing the next day...
8am the next morning we were still drinking, so much for the quiet one. The atmosphere in Salamanca was really good though and we had such a good laugh. We must've visited every bar in the whole of the city. I'd definately reccommend a visit, the men are really gullible as well.. I managed to get away with some unbelievably ludicrous tales!! The next day after 4 hours sleep I wasnt feeling so chirpy, but my adventurer's spirit shone through and we set out on a quest to find the legendary frog of Salamanca (amongst the intricate carving's on the university wall there is somewhere carved a frog the story goes if you can find the frog without any help you'll be married within a year.. dun dun duh)
I began to get the feeling that I am never destined to be married when we couldnt even find the wall. You'd think it would be easy being on the facade of the uni.. but no.. 3 hours later and after having spent a long time staring at a totally different wall which didn't even have any carvings on it, we still hadnt found it. You'd think they'd put up signs.. ´The wall with the frog´ or something, eventually after asking loads of people we got there, turns out we had walked right by the street and been about 10 metres away from it not once but at least 10 times, anyway, I began to look for the frog but some annoying guy kept trying to point it out and therby ruin my chances of marriage, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep concentrating on the search when I had my fingers in my ears singing la lalalaa. In the end, I am ashamed to say, I gave up and looked in the guide book..
The frog didnt even look like a frog , it just looked like a bit of stone.. I was highly disappointed..
hmm I seem to have gone on a fair bit, and I need to get going so I will continue soon
in part 2 - S visits her crazy family in Andalucia and Bday stay at the Ritz... I bet you can't wait.. I can just see the excitement on all your faces!
Friday, March 21, 2003
Las Fallas
Just a quick post to tell you about my little trip I went on yesterday to Valencia - Las Fallas.
It was pretty crazy. Las Fallas are basically these huge model things and each one is meant to depict a different daily Spanish life and for the 5 day festival they are erected all over the city for you to wander around and look at them as well as taking in the Valencian culture eating paella and soaking up the sun. There are a few drawbacks in this as I personally couldn't see what any of them depicted, don't like rice and it was freezing but ..never mind.. life must go on and they were nice to look at, very detailed and they must take months and months to make, although some were very strange and of children.. You'll see why this is worrying..
On the last day and night, which is when we went, they have a big display of fireworks.. at 2pm.. yes thats in the afternoon. Consequently you can't see them, just hear the bangs and smell the smoke, very strange, but this is Spain.. anything goes..
The highlight of the whole week, and Jay i know you are gonna love this-- is the burning of the fallas, all of them, bearing in mind these things are absolutely massive, easily as big as the apartment blocks next to them, it's quite an achievement that they don't burn the city down. They set them alight by wrapping loads of bangers around them and then setting loads of fireworks off at the bases of each statue thing. The statues are made of cardboard so they burn easily, the fires are so huge and pretty spectacular, plus the fact its done at night so it has more of an effect than the fireworks in the daylight. The Spanish people love it - they whoop and cheer everytime they set fire to them and they fall down. I thought it had a kind of pagan feeling about it.. I'm sure there were no regulations either. I'd seen Spanish people wandering around with scarves on their heads all day, it did make me wonder, it wasn't until we had bits of burning cardboard land on our heads that I realised why..
Another aspect of the festival (another one for you J), is locals letting off fireworks in the street all day every day. There is a definite element of danger in this I feel, especially as a favourite game of the locals is to throw firecrackers at foreigners. The firecrackers are movement sensitive so if you try and run away it follows you and burns your leg. We had someone throw a banger at us from a fourth floor window... I was quite scared for my life.
The whole affair is very noisy, it sounds like there are bombs going off all around, not good for pregnant women or those of a sensitive disposition I'm sure, although I did see quite a few dogs and cats and they didn't seem to mind too much, I guess they must be used to it.
The day was quite knackering all in all as we had to leave Madrid at 8am and then arrived back at the same time this morning. It didn't help that we had a load of crazy Italians on our coach who sang very loud Italian songs all the way there. They got pissed before we even left Madrid. Unfortunately I didn't manage to sample of the legendary agua de valencia.. a delicious cocktail made of champagne, orange juice and a variety of spirits as i had some dodgy paella that made me feel a bit queasy. I knew rice was evil..
All in all though it was a pretty fun day, not sure if i would go back again though, the fact I left valencia alive the one time is a miracle I think, and I'm not sure I got the whole point of daytime fireworks and burning foreigners though I spose with Americans it's a fair game ..
It was pretty crazy. Las Fallas are basically these huge model things and each one is meant to depict a different daily Spanish life and for the 5 day festival they are erected all over the city for you to wander around and look at them as well as taking in the Valencian culture eating paella and soaking up the sun. There are a few drawbacks in this as I personally couldn't see what any of them depicted, don't like rice and it was freezing but ..never mind.. life must go on and they were nice to look at, very detailed and they must take months and months to make, although some were very strange and of children.. You'll see why this is worrying..
On the last day and night, which is when we went, they have a big display of fireworks.. at 2pm.. yes thats in the afternoon. Consequently you can't see them, just hear the bangs and smell the smoke, very strange, but this is Spain.. anything goes..
The highlight of the whole week, and Jay i know you are gonna love this-- is the burning of the fallas, all of them, bearing in mind these things are absolutely massive, easily as big as the apartment blocks next to them, it's quite an achievement that they don't burn the city down. They set them alight by wrapping loads of bangers around them and then setting loads of fireworks off at the bases of each statue thing. The statues are made of cardboard so they burn easily, the fires are so huge and pretty spectacular, plus the fact its done at night so it has more of an effect than the fireworks in the daylight. The Spanish people love it - they whoop and cheer everytime they set fire to them and they fall down. I thought it had a kind of pagan feeling about it.. I'm sure there were no regulations either. I'd seen Spanish people wandering around with scarves on their heads all day, it did make me wonder, it wasn't until we had bits of burning cardboard land on our heads that I realised why..
Another aspect of the festival (another one for you J), is locals letting off fireworks in the street all day every day. There is a definite element of danger in this I feel, especially as a favourite game of the locals is to throw firecrackers at foreigners. The firecrackers are movement sensitive so if you try and run away it follows you and burns your leg. We had someone throw a banger at us from a fourth floor window... I was quite scared for my life.
The whole affair is very noisy, it sounds like there are bombs going off all around, not good for pregnant women or those of a sensitive disposition I'm sure, although I did see quite a few dogs and cats and they didn't seem to mind too much, I guess they must be used to it.
The day was quite knackering all in all as we had to leave Madrid at 8am and then arrived back at the same time this morning. It didn't help that we had a load of crazy Italians on our coach who sang very loud Italian songs all the way there. They got pissed before we even left Madrid. Unfortunately I didn't manage to sample of the legendary agua de valencia.. a delicious cocktail made of champagne, orange juice and a variety of spirits as i had some dodgy paella that made me feel a bit queasy. I knew rice was evil..
All in all though it was a pretty fun day, not sure if i would go back again though, the fact I left valencia alive the one time is a miracle I think, and I'm not sure I got the whole point of daytime fireworks and burning foreigners though I spose with Americans it's a fair game ..
Thursday, March 13, 2003
Another madrid update. Am just cooling down in the internet cafe as I've spent all day in the sun- it's a hard life being an erasmus student
Weather here is gorgeous, 30ºc today. Have been just wandering around this really funky little area of madrid called Chueca thats a bit like Soho and just sitting looking cool in the trendy little bars. Have sort of given up on having no money and got myself a credit card instead, this is very handy as i have just discovered FCUK Madrid! yay.
Went to a small historical town on the outskirts of Madrid at the weekend called Toledo. All I really have to say about this cultural excursion is that this town has a lot of churches and hills. It was quite pretty though.
I am off on another sightseeing tour this Saturday of another ´interesting´ town according to the guide book. We'll soon see if I agree with that. If it's boring at least i can soak up some more rays instead (he he)
It's great being able to spend all your time outdoors getting a tan.. (or in my case going a funny pinky colour).. I am quite loving it.
Next week am really looking forward to a trip we're going on with 200 other erasmus students to Valencia.. they have a big festival/fair/carnaval thing known as Las Fallas in March. We leave at 8am and get back at 8am the next day. Not quite sure how i am going to make this early start but I have a few days to worry about that yet. It should be mad.. beach, paella, parties... what could be better.
I have also recently taken up jogging... I know that you're going to find this impossible to believe but I'm afraid to say its true! (this has to do with my new plan to spend as much time out of the house as possible) the park is quite typically spanish in that it is very strange. It has a circuit that you're meant to follow stopping off at things along the way to do various exercises ..situps etc. This is all very well and good and I like the idea of a free gym but, and i don't know if this is just me, I am failing to see the objective of some of the things.. such as..
At point number 1 you have to see how high you can jump?.. err..
Then point number 2 you have to leapfrog over some poles...
Then point number 3 .. a solitary hurdle thats too high to jump over anyway (I tried, unfortunately it's a very solid hurdle, you can imagine the consequences) and so it goes on.
I think I am probably working some very obscure muscles, if any, but then that's Spain.
Well that's about all news for now...
Weather here is gorgeous, 30ºc today. Have been just wandering around this really funky little area of madrid called Chueca thats a bit like Soho and just sitting looking cool in the trendy little bars. Have sort of given up on having no money and got myself a credit card instead, this is very handy as i have just discovered FCUK Madrid! yay.
Went to a small historical town on the outskirts of Madrid at the weekend called Toledo. All I really have to say about this cultural excursion is that this town has a lot of churches and hills. It was quite pretty though.
I am off on another sightseeing tour this Saturday of another ´interesting´ town according to the guide book. We'll soon see if I agree with that. If it's boring at least i can soak up some more rays instead (he he)
It's great being able to spend all your time outdoors getting a tan.. (or in my case going a funny pinky colour).. I am quite loving it.
Next week am really looking forward to a trip we're going on with 200 other erasmus students to Valencia.. they have a big festival/fair/carnaval thing known as Las Fallas in March. We leave at 8am and get back at 8am the next day. Not quite sure how i am going to make this early start but I have a few days to worry about that yet. It should be mad.. beach, paella, parties... what could be better.
I have also recently taken up jogging... I know that you're going to find this impossible to believe but I'm afraid to say its true! (this has to do with my new plan to spend as much time out of the house as possible) the park is quite typically spanish in that it is very strange. It has a circuit that you're meant to follow stopping off at things along the way to do various exercises ..situps etc. This is all very well and good and I like the idea of a free gym but, and i don't know if this is just me, I am failing to see the objective of some of the things.. such as..
At point number 1 you have to see how high you can jump?.. err..
Then point number 2 you have to leapfrog over some poles...
Then point number 3 .. a solitary hurdle thats too high to jump over anyway (I tried, unfortunately it's a very solid hurdle, you can imagine the consequences) and so it goes on.
I think I am probably working some very obscure muscles, if any, but then that's Spain.
Well that's about all news for now...
Wednesday, March 05, 2003
Poverty, Penguins and Pancakes
Hey Hey
Well good news is that it seems to finally have got warmer in Madrid. Today it's t-shirt weather and I for one am very pleased about it. Things have been continuing pretty much as normal after a pretty mad week when Peter Piper and his friend came to visit.. 5 long nights of partying and then shopping everyday.. crazy but a good laugh although I spent the following week in bed recovering!
I am now experiencing what it is like to live like a peasant, on the contrary to what you may be thinking this is not some profound social experiment but more due to the fact that i have run out of funds and have had to limit myself to a food budget of 3 euros a week for the next 2 months. Unfortunately I spent this entire budget on pancake mix and fillings yesterday (which were absolutely delicious, I had 8!!) but never mind.. at least I'll be thin now!
My new found extreme poverty has not stopped me going out tho, to save money we are only really frequenting places where we are on the guestlist and only drinking water (or in the case of the D&G party that we went to on Saturday.. the place has a free bar!!) Giving up alcohol has not been as hard as I imagined, the real test is now giving up chocolate for lent.. the fact that I am expecting a chocolate parcel from England doesn´t really help matters!
Have been to some really funky clubs lately. One had these naked people painted as sunflowers wandering around. It was very surreal but really cool. I don´t think the student clubs at Uni are going to be the same! Got chatted up by yet another lesbian on saturday, I´m thinking that I must have that lesbian look about me!?
Also have had my exam results through - 2 fails and one high pass. Not really bothered, just glad that they don't count towards my degree. Yesterday and Monday were the first days that i have been to lectures and not fallen asleep! I think the sun must have something to do with it.
Went to a biological park the other day. It was really good apart from the fact that all the other clientele were under the age of 5. They have a variety of different domes with different types of wildlife in each one, in one you can see nocturnal animals awake and playing as in the dome during the day it´s nighttime and vice versa. Another dome is climatised like a tropical jungle with storms every half hour and little jungle animals and birds running about. My favourite was the artic dome tho. We spent about an hour just watching penguins swimming around, I wish I was a penguin.
This week it has been carnaval, people dresing up and big processions and stuff, some of it very strange, only the Spanish would think it up. Today is the burying of the sardine - not sure quite what this entails but might go and check it out later.
Don´t have any other news for now.. won´t be coming home for easter as i can´t afford to renew my passport until next term!! (is it illegal to be in a foreign country with an expired passport?) anyway you all should come and visit me!
Happy first day of lent
Wednesday, January 29, 2003
Daily Routines
Well life in
routine as you can get when you have a 5 day weekend.
Have got a job in the evenings teaching this little 3 year old, Pedro, English. It’s ok considering he’s a devil child, have been doing it for about 3 or 4 weeks now although his dad had a word with me the other day because he feels that Pedro should be able to hold conversations in English by now (HES 3 FOR GODS SAKE), needless to say I think my jaw hit the floor - and I thought getting him to count to 5 was quite an achievement, clearly I was mistaken.
This last week Pedro and his sister have been ill. In fact she vomited all over me, but his parents still insisted I came round, couldn’t quite see the point in this as Pedro blatantly ignored me the whole time. I just try and think of the money instead of wanting to strangle the little buggar.
WEATHER UPDATE: Have been quite disappointed by the weather recently. It’s absolutely freezing and has rained for the last 4 days. I thought
Uni is still strange. Tried to get a supervisor for our year project that we have to do for our home University. Just to help us out occasionally if we need it. This being
Have been out drinking and the like quite a lot recently. Have had
visitors every weekend for the last few weeks. A lot of vodka has been
consumed with the usual crazy consequences. Somehow I ended up pulling this Brazilian guy the other day, a bad move, he bit me! Was too inebriated to notice at the time. Was not until the following day when I was wondering why my lip hurt did the penny drop, needless to say my flat mate and visiting friend found it hilarious.
bar (Chapandaz)itself was cool though. It’s like a cave with loads of stalactites on the ceiling and the panther milk comes out of a carefully positioned one by the bar - quite odd. Good place to get wasted though, you can only buy drinks in glasses of 1 litre or more.. genius.
Oooh have rambled on for ages and ages suppose I better stop before you all die of boredom... in fact I’d be surprised if anyone is reading this far down...anyway hope everyone is well
x
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