Pictures

Sea Urchins and Public Urination

Boom boom boom boom.  The beat of the drum pounds through the warm air.  Metallic sounds come from people playing tin cans, others from playing cheese graters.  Boom boom boom, the sound grows louder.  As my host family and I make our way down the winding streets, the number of people grows fast.  Liter Cruzcampo beer bottles are lined up on the side of the road next to empty black prickly sea-urchins.  The smell of beer, pee, and seafood creep into the air.  Boom boom boom, the crowd gets larger and larger and suddenly I cross into a street that is packed from one wall to the other with people squished together like olives in a jar.  We push our way through the dense circles of people drinking, smoking, peeing, talking, dancing, shouting, jumping.  Shrimp bodies litter the streets with their eyes watching the hectic scene unfurl.  Cádiz has become sieged by pre-carnival partying.  The beach is currently filled with partiers, the streets are littered with innumerous empty bottles of alcohol, people are drunk, dancing, eating, socializing, all in a frenzy that is typically Spanish.  I can only wonder what Carnaval will be like if this was just pre-gaming…     

Kein Beir vor vier: Eine Nacht in Woodstock

            Walking around the city, we ended up at la Punta, a strip of discotecas located right on the ocean.  Unfortunately, nightlife is non-existent on Tuesday nights so we decided to head back into the main part of the city.  We stumbled upon a bar that had a bunch of Germans that were in my Spanish class so we decided to go inside and socialize.  The bar next door had some Americans that were in our class from New York, but overall it seemed really dead in Cádiz.  We finally decided to go to Woodstock, our favorite bar in the city and just a street away from my house.  We walked inside to find the bar packed full of people.  Some were playing pool, some were at the bar, others at tables.  The building is wooden on the inside and decorated with pictures of Jimmy Hendricks.  It is clean, welcoming, and very close to home.  All of a sudden, I ran into this Italian guy I knew so we started hanging out with him.  Later in the bar I saw Vera and Elena from Germany: the Erasmus-party experts…This was the bar to be at!  It turns out that there were three main groups of people at the bar that night:  the Germans, the Italians, and then our tiny group of Americans.  The Germans jumped up and down singing their drinking songs and then the Italians would respond standing on chairs and singing their own ones.  At around 1:00am, the Germans from the other bar walked in and we all started hanging out at a booth.  I cliqued with Monica and this Australian guy and spent the whole night talking with friends, drinking Coca-Cola, and making new friends.  At around 3:30am the bar tuned its lights on and we all had to leave. We walked around the city a bit and then went our own ways.  A perfect night.  

House coats and Capirotes

Cádiz: a tiny cobblestone island.  A 15 minute walk from one end to the other.  It’s a city with over 3,000 years of history and influences from the strongest empires from the Middle East, Europe and Africa.  It is a city so small that public transportation is restricted to taxis that only squeeze through the narrow and claustrophobic alleys.  Ancient buildings overlook the people below with tiny balconies that have just enough room for some potted plants and a tiny stool.  On the ground level, the calles are busy with shoppers going in and out of Zara, Springfield, Sfera, Blanco, and the hundreds of other clothing stores that line all of the streets.  Weaving in and out of the crowds of people, you pass a few bread shops, candy stores, Irish bars, and tapas bars.  Eventually you end up in one of the many plazas filled with palm trees, a fountain and a café or two.  Continue walking and you’ll end up at the ocean, it’s inevitable. 

It is the ideal location, unless it is a cold and rainy Sunday like today.  No one was on the streets and everyone huddled under their house-coats and watched movies all day.  Today was a relaxing day.  One big thing I did get done was booking a hotel in the center of Seville for Holy Week.  I managed to book it for 89€ for 4 days which is unbelievable since the going rate for a room is between 150€ to 300€ PER NIGHT during this hectic week.  With my train ticket it should only come to about 110€ for one of the most intense and moving scenes seen anywhere around the world.  This is the reason why I became obsessed with Spanish, and during jueves santo, Good Friday, sábado santo, and Easter I will located right at the heart of it next to La Catedral in Seville.        

From Madrid to Cádiz

From Toledo Los VIPs took the train back up to Madrid to while the Seville party-bus continued its journey to southern Spain.  It was just the 6 of us and Carmen on RENFE and the peace and quiet was beautiful.  It seemed like we were rid of a giant malignant disease that ate away and started to destroy the image of the American in the eyes of Spaniards. We entered Madrid and before taking the train for the long 5 hour journey to Cádiz, we decided to celebrate with Chocolate con churros which is like melted milk chocolate in a coffee cup and strips of fried dough.  The brochure told us we would be spending around 30€ a day in Madrid, but seeing as how meals were around 2€, I bought new shoes for 19€, ½ gallon of water for 0.25€, etc, I think I might have spent 30€ the whole time I was there.

A long a boring train ride to Cádiz brought me to Noni, Patricia (her daughter), and Javi and Yeyo (two boys from Jerez, Spain who are living with her).  Noni is extremely stylish and very accommodating (I got good vibes from the moment I met her).  I started talking with her and with Patricia and it was beautiful: I spoke very quickly and fluently, 100% was understood and I thought I was in the clear….but Oh! Was I wrong.  When Yeyo spoke, I cringed inside.  This guy, about my age, spoke with such a thick accent that I’m pretty sure he didn’t use a consonant once in his short and very fast sentences: The accent of Jerez.  Even when he spoke slow, painstakingly slow, I couldn’t understand half of what he was telling me…I was no longer in Madrid.

Yeyo, Javi, and Pepe (host father) went to the bar that night for the soccer match between Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid.  Yeyo opened up right away and was teaching me about soccer, the rules, the players, his girlfriend, and just random things.  Although we may be polar opposites, I feel like Yeyo and I are going to get along very well.  It’s obvious that he’s a really nice guy and would go out of his way for anyone.  I’m looking forward to more soccer matches and playing Call of Duty on Playstation 3 when he gets back on Tuesday.  Noni is very warm, laughs a lot, accommodating, and all around nice lady. Oh, and a ridiculously good cook.  Patricia is always smiling and also seems genuinely nice.  Pepe and I have had intense discussions about religion, Spanish politics from the 20^th century, and basically everything:  we luckily share the same ideological views.  I am extremely happy with my home-stay! (minus the terrible problems with WiFi)  Because of that problem I may be late on my blogs (like the past couple days), but hopefully I can get the hang of it.  On a final note; Cádiz is absolutely beautiful.  The beaches are sandy, streets are tiny, cobblestone is everywhere along with plenty of shopping.  It is the epitome of Spanish and now I know that I have picked the right program.   

The Orc and the red dance-party

It started out as any other night.  A group of the Cádiz kids mixing with the Seville kids in the Plaza outside of the hotel.  Out of the corner of my eye I could see it: an Orc.  Yes, indeed this was something out of a Lord of the Rings movie...He wore an animal skin vest, animal boots, carried a very large walking stick with some sort of animal hanging off.  He had ears larger than an elf's, and a nose longer than a bird's beak...and of course we followed him down the maze of streets in downtown Madrid.  A group of Americans being escorted down the streets of Madrid by a troll.  We arrived at this hole in the wall bordered by steel grates and two bouncers standing under a small sign that read "Boite".  Red light oozed out of the opening in the building onto the cobblestone streets and onto our new orc-troll guide.  Everyone started filing into the entrance like cows going to slaughter.  The stairs led down and turned and continued down under the streets of Madrid, music growing louder and louder, pulsing, electronic, until we entered.  In front of me was a red room: bar to the right, dance floor to the left.  Further up was a lounge area that led onto the main dance-floor pit like area.  The DJ was playing some Euro-house music and Spanish people were dancing and moving their feet to the repetitious beat of the bass.  THIS, was my first Spanish club.  I will refer to these as discotecas because although they may seem similar to American clubs, they have a completely different atmosphere.

Example: There is no grinding in discotecas.  Though Colosseum in Providence my be solely grinding, Spanish people prefer to dance in large groups of friends and not really touch eachother.  Example 2: Sexuality is far less necessary.  Girls actually wear outfits that you'd see on the street and not those extremely skimpy skirts with over-done makeup and accentuation body parts *cough cough*.  It was quite nice to be totally honest.

We went to the discoteca at around midnight and left at around 3:30am which was when the party just started to begin.  At around 1am-2am people flooded in and at around 2:30 a guy came in with bongo drums and got on top of the bar and the DJ station and played along to the remixes of "Alors on danse", Black eyed peas, Duck Sauce's "Barbra Streisand" etc which vibrated throughout the small underground club pulsating through everyone's bodies.  It was a sight to be seen and I must say, the nightlife here is amazing, safe, and now I understand why Spain is well known for the Siesta.

Heading out for some dinner
Kevin (11:02pm)

Gold, sex and shoes

Madrid: Gold, sex, and shoes. These three words sum up this consumer city.  Each building is some sort of clothing store that is a bout as big as a bedroom that reaches up 5 floors (I'd say more escalators than outfits).  Shoe stores dominate the Madrid scene followed by H&M, Zara, and other clothing stores sometimes interrupted with a café, bar, or McDonalds.  I decided to avoid the American chain stores like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts (yes, I wrote Dunkin Donuts).  Instead I got lost in the confusing and ever-winding network of streets and small byways.  As always, my strategy worked extremely well.  At around 3:30 I stopped for a quick lunch in a tiny Bocadillo shop.  About the size of a shoe-box I would say with a line of natives going out the door.  I ordered the numero 1: a warm and crunchy French baguette lined with paper thin layers of jamón serrano (illegally good ham kind of like Prosciutto in the states), thin slices of fresh tomato cut in front of me, a slice of cheese (also cut fresh), all drizzled with olive oil.  This all came out to 2€ which is probably the cheapest thing I've found to eat here besides tapas.  It was absolutely fantastic!  Walking down the cobblestone streets lined with Peugeot and Renault cars and boarded by overlooking European buildings and balconies made everything seem so real. I can honestly say I found happiness in 2€.

We had an amazing dinner which was on the tab of API (thank you very much) at around 9pm.  I chose the seafood soup filled with clams, squid, and muscles.  For my dinner I had Duck Confite (crispy duck topped with a berry and sesame sauce), and a puff pastry with mango sorbet.  I have to admit, Spain is far exceeding my expectations in the food department.  At dinner, all 6 of the students going to Cádiz bonded over my terrible jokes and dry humor.  We had such a great time at dinner that we decided to go out to the discoteca only to find out we were well under-dressed.  Wondering the streets at 11pm we came across a little bar and ordered a jug of Sangria.  I hate red wine but this was absolutely fantastic.  I could have done the whole jug in  alone, but I figured being responsible is always best.  We split it 6 ways which resulted in about a good half of a wine glass each and it was amazing bonding time.  The Seville group has around 40 students but our group of 6 cliqued immediately and seem to have special privileges.  I joke around A LOT here and have our group named as los VIPs between all of the program advisors and amongst ourselves.  We are all excited for tomorrow and are bonding so well.  This trip is going to be amazing!  I could write so much more, but it is 24:30 here and we are touring Madrid tomorrow.  Hasta Mañana!

Purgatory

This morning I woke up to a starry sky:  little bright lights speckling in the dark and mysterious beyond.  Puffy clouds floated past below marking a boarder between the Earth and the night sky.  As I write this I am currently in transition between the Heavens and Earth and patiently awaiting my final arrival into what could be a paradise or a living hell, uncertain of what the future may bring.  I have prepared for this all my life and now comes my final judgement, and know what? I'm feeling pretty good about it.

12:52 am  EST