I hope everyone is enjoying Princeton Reunions without me. But I'm in Madrid, and This Is Why I Love It...
1) Nothing matters.
Seriously. Almost nothing matters in this country. It's a blessing and a curse. But, I love it. The lifestyle is one of a kind. On a Thursday evening you can find 40 year old people in suits sitting outside calmly drinking beer until midnight. It may be more common to pee on the street than to pee in a toilet. People take a 45 minute break to "eat breakfast" about 1.5 hours after they get to work. You can drink on the street and it doesn't matter that it's against the law. And the whole country basically takes the month of August off of work.. Of course, this all has an evil twin brother which goes like this:
Ryan solicits his Spanish Nationality in mid-February. The people pushing papers tell Ryan to wait about 2 months for it to be finished. Ryan waits and waits and eventually begins calling to figure out why it isn't finished. They don't give him any information. Ryan then goes in person with his Aunt and waits in line forever (while three of the workers leave at 10:30 to get breakfast). Then they tell Ryan that the papers didn't arrive in the proper building until early April, thus taking about a month and a half to travel the distance of about an hours walk away. But the lifestyle is still amazing.
2) The Language
The Spanish Language has many things that the English language doesn't. Obviously this goes both ways but I think Spanish is, in general, more fun to speak. Little phrases, diminutives, and to-the-point slang and swear words make conversation funnier and more interesting. There is a common phrase to say just about everything in Spanish. For example, one of the sayings that always comes to mind, taught to me by non-other-than my father - "teta, la que en la mano quepa" which means that the best boob is the one that fits in the hand, anything more is excess.
3) The Food
This is, in large part, due to my family because my grandmother and aunt's are all amazing cooks. We eat at their house about three times per week and it's always the best food we can get. From simple things like sandwiches, to more complex Spanish meals like garbanzos estofados, it's always amazing. Plus my grandma has gotten into the habit of making us her homemade tomato sauce every week which is probably one of the 7 modern wonders of the world.
4) The Nightlife
It's great to live in a city. I've never lived in a place that is going 24/7 and you can do anything anytime (except during lunch time and on Sundays, and in the month of August (see section "Nothing Matters")). Where we live, in the center of the city, there is any type of disco playing any type of music within a 20 minute walk. You can drink on the walk there, you can drink on the metro there and you can sneak drinks in, making the night cheap and amazing. Something that is unique to Spain is the time span of a normal night. People will go to small bars or drink at home/in a plaza until around 2 or 3 pm. Then the clubs fill up and people stay until they close around 6 or 7 AM. By this time, the metro has started up again and everyone heads back home to sleep until lunch the next day, aka 3 pm.
5) Adorable Children aka Denisa
So, I basically have 2 girlfriends now in Madrid. One is Jessica, 23 years old, 5 foot 6ish, blonde hair, green eyes. The other is Denisa, 5 years old, 3 feet tall, brownish hair, adorable, and entirely and irrevocably embarrassed around me. She actually just turned 5. Which was a big day for both of us. Anyways, Denisa fell in love with me (and I with her) at the Christmas Festival for my school. Ever since, she has been intensely embarrassed when around me and very shy. This week, for her birthday, I did a big first and bought my first pair of jewelery for a girl - a 1 euro bracelet with a silver chain and blue "stones". I gave it to her on her birthday - well I went out to the playground, she tried to hide, I called her out and talked to her in Spanish, gave her the bracelet and she gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek in return and hasnt stopped showing it to everyone in the school since. She is so adorable and I really just wish that she wasn't so shy around me because then we could have so much fun together! So this isnt really about Madrid at all but i had to put it in.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
A Tale of Two Kitties
Not by Charles Dickens. Meaning, not incredibly boring.
About a month ago, my Mom contacted an advertisement for calico kittens. This is about 8 months after our last cat, Molly, died. So, my mom shotgunned one kitten and started to wait until the creature was old enough to leave its mother. Over the course of a few weeks, the kitten, Lucy, grew from an odd looking ball of fuzz into an adorable precious little thing.
When my mother went to pick up the new kitten, she found out that some other people bailed on their adoption of another kitten in the litter so she adopted the two of them. So she came home with two little bundles of joy and set to work making them their new home. Over the course of the week, they became more and more confident with their new domain and began to settle in.
The second kitten, named Gabby due to her gregarious approach to life, was very active and constantly playing with something, whether it was sitting in front of the computer screen and following the cursor as my dad moved the mouse or repeatedly biting Lucy's tail.
Well. Life was seeming pretty perfect for my parents until the vet brought some bad news. Apparently, both kittens tested positive for FIV, feline immunodeficiency virus. The current theory is that their mother got knocked up by some street cat who had seen one too many corners. There is a 50% chance that the mother passes the infection to the kittens but there is no way to differentiate between presence of the virus and presence of the antibodies. So, we aren't 100% sure that they have the virus. But, in the end, we decided it was better to return the kittens to their previous owner who said they will take care of them because kittens with the virus dont live much over a year or so.
So, my parents are, again, kittenless. Poor little things. The kittens of course.
About a month ago, my Mom contacted an advertisement for calico kittens. This is about 8 months after our last cat, Molly, died. So, my mom shotgunned one kitten and started to wait until the creature was old enough to leave its mother. Over the course of a few weeks, the kitten, Lucy, grew from an odd looking ball of fuzz into an adorable precious little thing.
When my mother went to pick up the new kitten, she found out that some other people bailed on their adoption of another kitten in the litter so she adopted the two of them. So she came home with two little bundles of joy and set to work making them their new home. Over the course of the week, they became more and more confident with their new domain and began to settle in.
The second kitten, named Gabby due to her gregarious approach to life, was very active and constantly playing with something, whether it was sitting in front of the computer screen and following the cursor as my dad moved the mouse or repeatedly biting Lucy's tail.
Well. Life was seeming pretty perfect for my parents until the vet brought some bad news. Apparently, both kittens tested positive for FIV, feline immunodeficiency virus. The current theory is that their mother got knocked up by some street cat who had seen one too many corners. There is a 50% chance that the mother passes the infection to the kittens but there is no way to differentiate between presence of the virus and presence of the antibodies. So, we aren't 100% sure that they have the virus. But, in the end, we decided it was better to return the kittens to their previous owner who said they will take care of them because kittens with the virus dont live much over a year or so.
So, my parents are, again, kittenless. Poor little things. The kittens of course.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
10 Days of Glory
I'm still in shock from the last 10 days of amazingness that 3 Texans brought into the Iberian Peninsula. Charlotte and two of Jessica's good friends from Tech, Jamie and Shawn, came to visit us for "10 days". Although the "10 days" was only really 8, we made the most of the time we had.
They arrived on Friday morning and we flew out to Barcelona on Saturday morning. Shawn said "Swine flu Schmine flu" and came to Spain with a large infection on his ankle which quickly began to spread. Either due to the infection, a lack of sleep, or being way to happy for words, Shawn was down for the count for the first 24 hours, spending most of it feverish in the hostel - a fate I wouldn't have wished upon anyone in that hostel, not even our favorite Zimbabwean (pray she doesn't stalk my blog).
With Shawn TKO'd, Char and Jamie did a little sight seeing while Jessica and I napped in a park having done it all before and not wanting to pay again. We bought some goods for the night and headed back to the hostel. We grabbed dinner at the "PitaInn" which boasted the sale of a PizzaCone which turned out to be less impressive than hoped but still ranked among the top 10 inventions of the past half-century.
Shortly there after, we began our night at the statue of Columbus with a "botellón". We drank just about the entire contents of the bottle of rum between the four of us by playing "Tails Never Fails" - shout out to Jon. We then proceeded to a nearby club that we thought would be decent. We made many a stops along the ten minute walk including climbing a palm tree and peeing in a moat.
Just before arriving at the club, I walked past a very familiar face and did a double take. Upon confirmation, I scurried away to inform Charlotte that Victor Noskov of Forbes Inn fame had just walked by. I quickly changed into Hot Pursuit mood and began screaming "VIC! VIC!" which resulted in the awkward reunion of him not recognizing me. Woooooops. Anyways, he took us to a house party and we hung out for a bit and then peaced back to the streets of Barcelona.
We spent the rest of the night on the street doing what we do best and ended the night at a doner kebap stand to kick our early morning tummy growls. When we woke up the next morning, Shawn was cured and we were ready to rock out at the Dali museum in Figueres.
I had been to the museum before but it was still pretty fantastic. I wish I understood more of the paintings and his motifs but the aesthetic appeal was still enough to get me through a second time. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it, probably because Dali was and is posthumously a badass.
We finished out Barcelona and came back to Madrid for the remainder of their trip. For the most part, Jessica and I had to work while they did their own thing in the city. However, Charlotte was able to come along with the third grade class on our field trip to the Madrid Zoo and Aquarium. It was a pretty great success.
Charlotte immediately became the object of interest for all of the adorable third grade girls and was walking through the zoo holding hands with a line of 5 girls. Georgina, one of the smartest ones, quickly realized she was capable of holding Charlotte's hand and mine at the same time and capitalized. She also learned the pouty lip pose in a matter of seconds. This picture pretty much sums up why she is my favorite third grader.
Fast forwarding a little, we all went out on Thursday night to a club called Joy Eslava. I found the place to be teeming with slightly creepy really aggressive guys, much more so than the other clubs I've been to in Madrid. But we had ourselves a good time and went home around 6:30 like the Spanish do.
Friday was a holiday in Spain called San Isidro who is the patron saint of Madrid. We had a big lunch with the family and went walking around to see some of the festivities. Then we came home and cooked some tapas for dinner and played Taboo. Just a relaxed night.
It may have been the eggs in a basket that we cooked or it may have been something else but Jess got deathly ill on Saturday and was bedridden like Shawn on day 1....sweatin in her underpants.
Saturday was their last day in town. They spent a large part of it shopping and walking around. At night we went to Kapital, our obvious favorite night club with 7 stories and a wealth of things to do. We had an awesome time, all the while missing Jessica, and ended the night with Churros con Chocolate at the Churreria San Gines. We, again, made it till la madrugada and arrived safely at home at 7:30.
The weekend was amazing. It was a reminder of how much I miss my friends from Princeton and of how big of a part of my life they all were and are. It was so great to see Charlotte and to just have some time to talk and joke and live it up.
They arrived on Friday morning and we flew out to Barcelona on Saturday morning. Shawn said "Swine flu Schmine flu" and came to Spain with a large infection on his ankle which quickly began to spread. Either due to the infection, a lack of sleep, or being way to happy for words, Shawn was down for the count for the first 24 hours, spending most of it feverish in the hostel - a fate I wouldn't have wished upon anyone in that hostel, not even our favorite Zimbabwean (pray she doesn't stalk my blog).
With Shawn TKO'd, Char and Jamie did a little sight seeing while Jessica and I napped in a park having done it all before and not wanting to pay again. We bought some goods for the night and headed back to the hostel. We grabbed dinner at the "PitaInn" which boasted the sale of a PizzaCone which turned out to be less impressive than hoped but still ranked among the top 10 inventions of the past half-century.
Shortly there after, we began our night at the statue of Columbus with a "botellón". We drank just about the entire contents of the bottle of rum between the four of us by playing "Tails Never Fails" - shout out to Jon. We then proceeded to a nearby club that we thought would be decent. We made many a stops along the ten minute walk including climbing a palm tree and peeing in a moat.
Just before arriving at the club, I walked past a very familiar face and did a double take. Upon confirmation, I scurried away to inform Charlotte that Victor Noskov of Forbes Inn fame had just walked by. I quickly changed into Hot Pursuit mood and began screaming "VIC! VIC!" which resulted in the awkward reunion of him not recognizing me. Woooooops. Anyways, he took us to a house party and we hung out for a bit and then peaced back to the streets of Barcelona.
We spent the rest of the night on the street doing what we do best and ended the night at a doner kebap stand to kick our early morning tummy growls. When we woke up the next morning, Shawn was cured and we were ready to rock out at the Dali museum in Figueres.
I had been to the museum before but it was still pretty fantastic. I wish I understood more of the paintings and his motifs but the aesthetic appeal was still enough to get me through a second time. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it, probably because Dali was and is posthumously a badass.
We finished out Barcelona and came back to Madrid for the remainder of their trip. For the most part, Jessica and I had to work while they did their own thing in the city. However, Charlotte was able to come along with the third grade class on our field trip to the Madrid Zoo and Aquarium. It was a pretty great success.
Charlotte immediately became the object of interest for all of the adorable third grade girls and was walking through the zoo holding hands with a line of 5 girls. Georgina, one of the smartest ones, quickly realized she was capable of holding Charlotte's hand and mine at the same time and capitalized. She also learned the pouty lip pose in a matter of seconds. This picture pretty much sums up why she is my favorite third grader.
Fast forwarding a little, we all went out on Thursday night to a club called Joy Eslava. I found the place to be teeming with slightly creepy really aggressive guys, much more so than the other clubs I've been to in Madrid. But we had ourselves a good time and went home around 6:30 like the Spanish do.
Friday was a holiday in Spain called San Isidro who is the patron saint of Madrid. We had a big lunch with the family and went walking around to see some of the festivities. Then we came home and cooked some tapas for dinner and played Taboo. Just a relaxed night.
It may have been the eggs in a basket that we cooked or it may have been something else but Jess got deathly ill on Saturday and was bedridden like Shawn on day 1....sweatin in her underpants.
Saturday was their last day in town. They spent a large part of it shopping and walking around. At night we went to Kapital, our obvious favorite night club with 7 stories and a wealth of things to do. We had an awesome time, all the while missing Jessica, and ended the night with Churros con Chocolate at the Churreria San Gines. We, again, made it till la madrugada and arrived safely at home at 7:30.
The weekend was amazing. It was a reminder of how much I miss my friends from Princeton and of how big of a part of my life they all were and are. It was so great to see Charlotte and to just have some time to talk and joke and live it up.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Bibione 2009 - Destiny Manifested
Bibione is a place in Italy. It is a beach town in northern Italy near Venice. It is also the name of a beach ultimate tournament held in said town every year. As stated earlier in the blog, the young American frisbee players that are living in Spain were rounded up and formed into a team, named Manifest Destiny, to compete at this tournament.
After a much anticipated weekend of ultimate, I can say that Bibione was one of the most enjoyable frisbee tournaments in which I have played. All of the players on the team could hold their own, which is unheard of in Spanish ultimate, and everyone was on the same page in terms of having fun, repping the USA and being outrageous. Let me run back some highlights.
We arrive in Bibione after a 2 hour plane ride and a 4 hour drive to the site of the rest of our team carrying casses of "Hell Bier" apparently exported from Hell itself. Great start to the weekend. We went to bed at a decent hour and woke up ready to kick some ass.
We had four games on Friday and won all four with minimal difficulty save a few minutes of the first game. We got straight into the American Spirit and started drawing tatoos on ourselves with sharpies. I elected to have two guns drawn on my abdomen looking like they were holstered into my beautifully short red shorts.
Friday night saw the rebirth of "Tales Never Fails" but this time everyone joined Jon and I in the fun and got really into it. Highlight of TNF part 2 were a collective effort in guessing 12 flips correctly (two of which were Jon who, of course, only guessed tails). I think there is a 1 in 4096 chance for this to happen which is pretty sweet. Another highlight of the night was Chris getting 9 in a row WRONG which is the exact equivalent of getting 9 in a row right which would have been awesome but was the opposite of what he actually accomplished. Another interesting part of the night was the discovery that I've never known the proper way to flip a coin and for my entire life have been flipping coins in an extremely difficult way. wooooops.
Saturday morning pitted us against the number 1 seed in the tournament, the Bavarian National Team. We were super pumped to play them due to a pregame speach by Dutch about the American work ethic which inspired some hilarious exclamations from Jon on sideline. Either way, we creamed some Bavarians (pun intended) and won 13 to 6. We had two somewhat difficult games against two other German teams but came out on top both times, effectively teaching all the Germans that history repeats itself and that you shouldn't mess with the US. These wins put us in the semifinals where we, again, had to play the Bavarians on Sunday morning.
Regardless, we had ourselves a good time on Saturday night. I was really sick all weekend so I offered to be DD for the night. This, however, required me to learn how to drive a stick. So after 30 minutes of training with Kyle, I was ready. My impecable sense of direction got us to the dinner and club but we were too early to go in. Soooooo we started playing this game that we learned from another team at the tournament. It involved german pornstar expressions such as "Scheizer en ma mund" and "up zuh poopah" and "nein" and "wunderbad" (spelling definitely phonetic). Myself, Chris, and Justin were all wearing cutoff jean dazie dukes to get the party rolling and when we tried to enter the club, the bouncers told Justin he wasnt allowed in but let both Chris and I pass. So Justin stayed outside until we could find a pair of pants.
When he joined us, we started the party off right by taking over the corner of the club that had the pole dancing pole and warmed that baby up. We pole danced for a few hours and left extremely contented.
We faced the Bavarians again Sunday morning. The outcome was the same but this time the game was much closer, allowing us to advance to play in the finals against a strong and athletic Dutch team. We played our asses off and came out on top, 13-9. Thus, a team of Americans who are average players in the states joined forces for one tournament and beat the shit out of Europe.
It is the first tournament I've won so it felt damn good. On top of it all, the group of people on the team were fantastic and hilarious. It's hard to put it all to words but, rest assured, Bibione was an awesome time.
Facebook pictures available here.
After a much anticipated weekend of ultimate, I can say that Bibione was one of the most enjoyable frisbee tournaments in which I have played. All of the players on the team could hold their own, which is unheard of in Spanish ultimate, and everyone was on the same page in terms of having fun, repping the USA and being outrageous. Let me run back some highlights.
We arrive in Bibione after a 2 hour plane ride and a 4 hour drive to the site of the rest of our team carrying casses of "Hell Bier" apparently exported from Hell itself. Great start to the weekend. We went to bed at a decent hour and woke up ready to kick some ass.
We had four games on Friday and won all four with minimal difficulty save a few minutes of the first game. We got straight into the American Spirit and started drawing tatoos on ourselves with sharpies. I elected to have two guns drawn on my abdomen looking like they were holstered into my beautifully short red shorts.
Friday night saw the rebirth of "Tales Never Fails" but this time everyone joined Jon and I in the fun and got really into it. Highlight of TNF part 2 were a collective effort in guessing 12 flips correctly (two of which were Jon who, of course, only guessed tails). I think there is a 1 in 4096 chance for this to happen which is pretty sweet. Another highlight of the night was Chris getting 9 in a row WRONG which is the exact equivalent of getting 9 in a row right which would have been awesome but was the opposite of what he actually accomplished. Another interesting part of the night was the discovery that I've never known the proper way to flip a coin and for my entire life have been flipping coins in an extremely difficult way. wooooops.
Saturday morning pitted us against the number 1 seed in the tournament, the Bavarian National Team. We were super pumped to play them due to a pregame speach by Dutch about the American work ethic which inspired some hilarious exclamations from Jon on sideline. Either way, we creamed some Bavarians (pun intended) and won 13 to 6. We had two somewhat difficult games against two other German teams but came out on top both times, effectively teaching all the Germans that history repeats itself and that you shouldn't mess with the US. These wins put us in the semifinals where we, again, had to play the Bavarians on Sunday morning.
Regardless, we had ourselves a good time on Saturday night. I was really sick all weekend so I offered to be DD for the night. This, however, required me to learn how to drive a stick. So after 30 minutes of training with Kyle, I was ready. My impecable sense of direction got us to the dinner and club but we were too early to go in. Soooooo we started playing this game that we learned from another team at the tournament. It involved german pornstar expressions such as "Scheizer en ma mund" and "up zuh poopah" and "nein" and "wunderbad" (spelling definitely phonetic). Myself, Chris, and Justin were all wearing cutoff jean dazie dukes to get the party rolling and when we tried to enter the club, the bouncers told Justin he wasnt allowed in but let both Chris and I pass. So Justin stayed outside until we could find a pair of pants.
When he joined us, we started the party off right by taking over the corner of the club that had the pole dancing pole and warmed that baby up. We pole danced for a few hours and left extremely contented.
We faced the Bavarians again Sunday morning. The outcome was the same but this time the game was much closer, allowing us to advance to play in the finals against a strong and athletic Dutch team. We played our asses off and came out on top, 13-9. Thus, a team of Americans who are average players in the states joined forces for one tournament and beat the shit out of Europe.
It is the first tournament I've won so it felt damn good. On top of it all, the group of people on the team were fantastic and hilarious. It's hard to put it all to words but, rest assured, Bibione was an awesome time.
Facebook pictures available here.
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