I got to the Madrid airport and after Susie's failure to find me in the terminal on her way out and my way in, I started my journey on the metro. Very interesting experience to try to navigate an unknown city when you don't speak or understand any of the language, except for maybe abrigo (jacket) and comida (dinner) which wouldn't help me get where I was trying to go. First thing I noticed on the subway was that everyone was making out, lotta PDA, definitely less reserved than the swiss. Eventually I found SOL and called Jon according to our plan , who's studying there for the year and he didn't answer. So then I was just finishing a solid 9 hours of travel, had all my bagage, it was night time, and I was still in a city where I don't understand shit.
I watched some street performers which was cool and there was a lot of activity on the streets for a Thursday night and waited for Jon's call. I called a few times more and never got one back, so I kind of just wandered through Madrid with my luggage as solicitors tried to get me to come into their bars in spanish. At least that's what I think they were doing.
Finally Jon called, apparently him and the rest of the team had been playing streetball or something and still were so with his phone kind of breaking down we eventually called each other enough times for him to give me his street address. Funny that I didn't have a map and couldn't ask anyone for directions, so I wandered this time with a destination and somehow, I eventually found it.
Brian Cahill lives with Jon so we hung out and he gave me a mini-tour of Madrid. It was definitely comforting to be with someone who could translate. We walked through this famous plaza whose name I forget and there was a comedian but I didn't get it and apparently it wasn't funny, so we went to get a kebab (kebabs are everywhere in europe!!) and Brian got his while this other guy got a huge order for his family and stayed on the phone making constant changes per his wife's direction or something.
The team finally got back to the apartment and they made/ate dinner, at this time it's almost 11 pm--the beginning of a trend of life on spanish time. Then we got ready and went out to Joy which is a club that Jon and Brian work at, and we got in for free because we were en la lista de jon zeta. It was cool to actually have to wait behind a rope with a bouncer that had an ear piece and suit on and to need valid id. We had to go on the early side, around 1 to get in, but never fear me and Graham held down the dance floor until it picked up. It was smokey like in Switzerland but the ceiling was higher so it was easier to handle. The music was good and we all danced. I met a girl named Elodie studying in Madrid, but who lives in Bern which is right next to Fribourg. We exchanged numbers maybe to meet up when she's home, and she said I danced like a Swiss person--I decided to take it as a complement.
Then a group of girls in minimal clothing came out and danced and none of the boys were looking at the girls they were dancing with any longer. It was kinda gross to watch the oggling, and the dancers weren't even very skilled at dancing. Apparently, if we had come back the next night, there would have been a girl just wearing tassles in a large glass cup... Before I knew it, it was almost 6 am and I was exhausted so headed back to Jons appartment where a bunch of guys were already asleep in the entrance way so I had to snag some blankets to make the floor more comfortable in the dark.
The next day after sleeping in, Graham and I decided to do the tourist thing in the 30C or 86F, sunshiney weather since we were the only two that hadn't seen the city yet.
Loved feeling like summer and getting a sunburn, although neither of those lasted. Both of us had just finished a bunch of traveling and were super sick of taking pictures and being tourists. We still had fun though and explored and when we had some spanish woman take our picture she sang something about being in love, which was pretty funny.
We took a break in a park with an egyptian tomb from Egypt and chilled and then headed back through the city. Took awhile but we got back eventually, and for some reason I had a ridiculous craving for a banana which I satisfied with a banana.
Then most of us went to el parco retiro or something like that to play some footie. We tried and failed and messed around. It was fun though and everyone from Madrid seemed to be in the park enjoying the weather.
We went back and made tapas for lunch or dinner which were very tastey and included, baguette/cheese/meat/apple/sweet melon/tomato/etc. We inhaled them and then had to head out for our game. We had scheduled a match against a Mexican team (in spain, I know right) under the lights on a turf field. Some of the boys got a little angsty before the game, but by the time the mexicans showed up to play on our very limited time slot it was fine. Three of Jon's friends joined us. The entire other team was male too, and I hadn't played outdoors in ages, so the first 15 minutes I was playing timid and making mistakes so they all wrote me off immediately. I got angry at myself and started playing fine, although it was too late for my impression with the other team. When I went out and came back in, 2 girls had come to watch and cheered as I went on.
The game ended with a tie 4-4 even though we should've won 5-4 because I got a goal that wasn't counted because only me and the goalie were close enough to see it went over the line before he got it and pushed it out, and in the heat of the moment I kicked it back in when it was still in his hands--not a good idea in soccer, and the play was turned against us. Oh well, still a very cool experience and basically the one hour I went all the way to spain for.
That night we took it easy, and around 1 am me and Danny and Ben and Greg and Jake went to a tapas bar for food and Sangria. I was expecting better sangria from spain but I just think they added the fruit last minute at this restaurant so who knows. We sat outside and these street vendors keep going in our faces to try to get us to buy stupid plastic things that light up. Then a bum came over and tried to sell us a packet of tissues. That same bum walked away and slipped and fell and started shouting. Interesting.
The next morning I got up and took a run to/around the retiro park. After I finished, I browsed the artists booths and found a necklace I liked then I layed down on the grass in the sun. I came back to the apartment to pack up and say goodbye and then headed back to the park to get that necklace. I was supposed to play another game of soccer that day, but due to a lack of communication and empty promises the game was scheduled at the same time as my flight, hence the run.
When I went back to get the necklace I tried to bargain, but the woman wasn't having it. I ended up paying the price she asked for, but it's really sweet and spanish and im really liking spanish style so I guess I need to pay the price. I went from there to the metro to the airport to the bus to the train to the bike back to fribourg. 18 hours of travel alone for less than 2 days in Madrid and only 1 soccer game, man i'm dedicated. Unfortunately, the memory of this otherwise good experience has been since tainted, which I am not going to go into detail about on the internet, but I will say that it sucks that some people will make several promises none of which they can keep to get you to do something, and then when you follow through, they turn it around against you and screw you over. Classy.
I don't remember what I did for the rest of the weekend in Fribourg or what I did on Monday, but I did go out for Crazy Monday and brought a swiss italian friend Fabio along with us which was a lot of fun. We stayed till the end, so I got like no sleep that night but set my alarm for 10 so I could see Mary and Allison's presentation in our 1015 class, which I realized when I woke up was not early enough to get showered and go, because I had to leave immediately after for my interview at Montreux.
Instead I slept for another hour and then got ready and set off for the mountainous lakey region of Montreux. Too bad it was cloudy and rainy! I got to the chateau of the Insitut Monte Rosa and it was dark inside and no one was at the reception, so I kind of stood around till a lady walked by. The kids are on vacation or something. So I let this lady choose the language of the interview and she chose French, which is fine, and I was surprisingly comfortable with an hour long interview in French.
She told me they were already pretty set on english teachers for the summer (the job I was interviewing for), but would send me an email when they decided. The next morning around 10am I got the job. Sweet deal. That meant though I had to straighten out things in Boston and make a decision. The rain stopped after my interview, so I walked around the lake through the mountains and got hungry.
I ended up at a Migros take away, and did my shopping there too since all Migros close at 7 and I hadn't had money to shop in 2 weeks. Then I carried a shit ton of groceries the 2 hour trip home.
On the train ride back, there was a Spanish woman with an adorable little girl who loved to smile at me. The mom had flag stickers with her and decided to do this to her child.
It was hilarious and even funnier when the girl would look in the window and see herself and start freaking out (every time). She couldn't even blink due to Switzerland!
The rest of the week was just relaxing, I was SO releaved not to be traveling again, so I got some work done that I had been putting off, stayed in my pajamas, and went out with my friends. I do recall however have some pretty strong negative feelings about my experience here. I felt like I had zero friends that I was actually close with and felt so incredibly lonely. Luckily come Saturday I started feeling a bit better.
Friday night I went with Dan, Mary, and Lauren to a Fribourg-Gottéron hockey game. To get there, we took a shortcut down a hill, across the railroad tracks, and over a fence. Lucky for us, when we were about to cross the tracks a train came so we had to crouch against the hill.
Gottéron is a really big deal in Fribourg, its the canton's semi-pro hockey team and like equivalent of D1. They had had an incredible season and this was the semi-finals against Davos and we were up 3-1 in the series. We didn't have tickets, but there is a heated tent with flat screen tvs and beer and sausage and massive amounts of cigarette smoke. It was like a hot boxed tent and there were a bunch of characters that were interesting to watch.
Davos got a goal early on and Gottéron never was able to put one away, it was scary being there towards the end, people were getting violent. Glad I went, but as it turns out Gottéron lost that game and continued to lose the whole series. Way to blow it in the end, guys.
Saturday night I went out with some kids from my floor, some of which are actually swiss! to a bar. Everyone got a beer, but I got wine. Anyway, when we were clicking glasses I made a big social taboo. I knew the rule about maintaining eye contact with the other person to maintain a good sex life, but I did not know about the rule against crossing over or under another pair. I attempted a cross and everybody freaked out, asking how I could not have learned this by now. I felt really bad about it, but they probably all forgot in a few minutes. I still feel bad, I'll never cross again! Then I headed over to Marta and Esters and it was really nice. There were just a few of us hanging out instead of the usual big erasmus party, so we all got to actually talk and that made me realize I have made at least a few good friends here.
On Sunday, me and my Swedish friend Eric Johnson decided to go to Abdelboden to ski. I think it might have been my last time of the season, since I have a pretty busy few months coming up. We took 3 trains and a bus and took the bus to the end as the driver told us to, which turned out to be a horrible decision. We couldn't find the base of the lift for about an hour as we walked around Abdelboden with all of our equipment, cuz for some reason they decided to not have signs around for it. Eventually we found the gondola to take us to Oey which was like 4 stops earlier on the bus, thanks bus driver.
It was big and the snow was great HOWEVER there was terrible fog and no visibility. It got worse throughout the day and there were times when we didn't know which direction was up and which direction was down.
We made the best of it though, you just had to be prepared to hit anything. I had this weird revelation at one point when I was searching for the next trail marker, that what I was doing was a lot like what we do in life: only being able to see a little bit ahead while blindly following markers you assume are safe, and needing to react quickly to unforeseen obstacles. This is not a deep blog though, so that's about as far as I'll get into it. The time had finally sprung forward (weeks later than in the US) the night before so we were both exhausted by the end of the day and starving, so a big dinner at st-justin was required.
It was super painful getting up for class Monday, especially because it still felt like 6 am. I was pretty useless that day. On Tuesday I finally went to my art history class and turns out this one was in German so luckily I had my laptop and could work on my witchcraft presentation. The professor wasn't even there, I shouldn't have woken up. Then I stopped by the train station to buy last minute tickets to Annecy, France that week to meet up with Rebecca Graffy and Emma Hanson. I'll save that story for another post because my witchcraft presentation is tomorrow and I should probably be finishing that and not this. Guess my priorities are a bit off.
Observations Spain Edition:
-Everything is later, including meals, that way they can squeeze a forth one in.
-They definitely know how to party.
-I have no idea how the whole country isn't sleep deprived.
-People there think I'm Spainish.
-Futbol is taken very seriously.
-The scarf I bargained for in Italy is all over the place and much cheaper in Spain.
-Public displays of affection are everywhere!
-It's much cheaper to live there than in Switzerland.
-There are live statues on every corner.
-There was this one street performer playing recorder. I played that in music class in 4th grade, come on now.
-Lots of offers for prostitution.
-Everyone I met told me in English that I have to learn Spanish, and those were the only words they knew in English.
-Incredible weather!
-I wasn't there long enough to make any more observations.
Some Swiss ones:
-There are so many hoodrats everywhere, aka gangster kids, except there's no reason for it.
-I don't think I've seen any homeless people, where did they put them all?
-They use rulers in class to make graphs or underline things in their notes. Why!
-They nickle and dime you on everything (ex mcdonalds ketchup packets with your meal? that'll be 0.15 CHF each please)
-Don't cross glasses or lose eye contact when trying to do a cheers!!
-Absinthe was invented here. They even have absinthe chocolate, how swiss!
-I am starting to make friends with some!
No comments:
Post a Comment