DAY 26: DOING REAL SHIT IN MADRID!
For my internship with the Movimiento Europeo, which is essentially a lobbying firm for unifying Europe, my sexy boss sent me to a conference with the Polish ambassador to Spain. Originally I thought this would be like a big conference, but nope! I met the ambassador standing outside, we kissed on the cheeks as per Spanish custom, and chatted. So weird. I ended up sitting one seat away from him, next to the Finnish ambassador to Spain in a small room with maybe 20 people. Surreal. And I actually understood almost all that they debated about! My internship rocks.
DAY 28: BULLFIGHTING IS LESS EXCITING THAN IT SOUNDS
So a little explanation of the people on my program: We have very distinctly split up into two groups. It is essentially Greeks vs. GDIs, but it's more like people who have mild alcoholic problems vs. people who barely drink. I'm obviously a part of the former group, aka "The A-Squad." We're less douchey than it sounds I swear. Anywaysss, everyone from the A-Squad either went to Portugal or Mallorca, where I was going to go but it got pretty expensive and I couldn't swing it with how much I just spent on fall break. So Madrid for the weekend for me!
On Friday, our constantly high Cinema teacher took us to a bull fight! I'm not normally the one to get pleasure from the killing of innocent animals for something other than tasty, tasty meat, but I figured when in Spain! We were sitting maybe 20 rows from the arena, but in the sun so it was wicked hot.
Then the bullfighters and their various teammates came out in extremely flamboyant attire, and eventually when they cleared out the first bull came out! Now, there is a very specific way that they kill the bulls.
- The three matadors and some various others wear it down in the beginning with some fancy cape work, mostly to show how vicious and dangerous the bull is.
- Once it gets more tired, a man comes out with a giant spear on a blindfolded, extremely padded horse and spears it in the back. This is always grotesque, and the bull starts bleeding a lot and ramming into the horse. This is to lower the head of the bull.
- Three guys show how tough they are by sticking what look like bowling pins into the bull's back while the bull is charging at them, without the safety of a cape.
- The matador who is going to kil the bull then comes out, does some fancy cape work, and then once the bull is ready sticks a huge, skinny sword into a particular spot in its back. The bull then dies like 5 minutes later after the matadors awkwardly do some cape work waiting for it to die. This gets real gory if the matadors miss the spot, and have to stab the bull multiple times
- Repeat. 6 bulls in total.
I gotta say, it was an experience but it was pretty terrible. It's fine most of the time, but once the bull's been stabbed and they're just playing with it waiting for it to die, it gets kinda weird. But I'm still glad I went, and I'm pretty upset that the bulls didn't at least gore one matador.
We got tapas afterwards, and one person from the other group had an apartment rented for the weekend since her friend was visiting, so Nate and I went there and chilled. That was a great change of pace, because normally if we all want to pregame together we have to go to a park or something. The biggest downside to homestays. Anyways, since I'm not really friends with this group, when they all came over it was kinda weird so I downed a box of wine and called it a night.
DAY 29: ZOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
On Saturday, me and Nate Bronstein went to the Madrid Zoo Aquarium! That's right, a zoo AND an aquarium!!! If you know me, you know I love zoos. And aquariums. It was pretty expensive to get in, but we had a coupon! We knew this wouldn't be your average zoo experience when we walked in, looked to the right, and saw flamingos straight up walking out of their exhibit. People in Spain seem to not care so much about animal safety. People were also just throwing food at the animals to make them more active, which was actually great. I've never seen bears so active. BEST DAY EVER!!!
Bird better step off.
MY FIRST RHINO!!!
Playful hippo!!!
Actually the cutest thing I've ever seen.
That night, my friend from Bedford who's studying abroad in Barcelona came to Madrid, so we met up for some boozing, some Dubliners, and the best part of the night, CHURROS! David went to Madrid before on a school trip (france and spain? france and spain! france and spain.) and he showed me the GREATEST place where they have freshly fried churros and a cup of melted chocolate. I'm going back to this always. I slept at his hotel, and awkwardly snuck back into my apartment at 9 the next morning without waking up my judgmental señora. SUCCESS!
DAY 29: EL RASTRO/ SOUVENIR TIME!
Every Sunday, there is a huge open air flea market just south of Sol, where they sell everything and anything. I wasn't really in a shopping mood, so I just went there to browse and see what they had. Some of my favorite things: boxers with the Spanish flag all over them, gas masks, and a street performer who used water glasses a la Miss Congeniality. Definitely coming back for gifts for people and a leather jacket.
UPDATE:
My fall break plans are finalized and I literally could not be more excited for the trip. Nate Bronstein and I are off to London on Thursday night for some pub drinking and visiting some cool people (eek!). The next day we're touristing (apparently that's a verb!) around London and taking silly pictures while at high tea before leaving that night on a bus to EDINBURGH! We have a trip booked, where they take us on a tour around Scotland, visiting castles, the set of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and most importantly the LOCH NESS! Then we're off to Dublin for Halloween, where we have booked a ghost tour and will be getting very rowdy. The only downside is that Nate did not accept my proposal to pretend to be engaged so we can get upgrades on our various trips. Lame sauce!
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