After seeing a flood of "OHMIGAWDTHEWEATHER" facebook statuses from my Ann Arbor homies yesterday, I thought I'd do a little bit of research on the matter...
Well played, April Ann Arbor
I guess they have Sunday. Okay, I'll give 'em that. And sun and upper 50s really isn't too shabby either. But hey, it probably can't be that much better in Sp-
Oh. Well, maybe this is just a short streak of nice weat-
it was like this las week, too
Well then. Uh. Yeah. Sorry. If it makes any of you feel better, I actually do miss the Michigan spring season. As a season, spring doesn't actually exist here. It just went straight into this sorta weather a couple weeks ago. It's also a really huge kick to the academic motivation. Yes, once again I do actaully have work to do here. In fact, by the end of May, I'll have written around 6 papers, with three of them being 15-20 pages in length. In Spanish. So of course it would behoove me to start the research and maybe crank out a few pages, right?
Thursday - Relaxing at a cafe
Stefania, si ves esta foto y quieres que la elimine, dímelo. Personalmente me la parece guay
Friday - relaxing by the river with shirtless dudes
Saturday - discovered the existence of a terraza on top of my building. Then traversed the city and found some Flamenco players and joined their crew for the day.
dat sky
That box there is a cajón, a sick little percussion instrument. I played that shit.
Sunday -Miserable attempt to do homework at a park. Me taking stupid photos of myself. Checking out Flamenco at night.
behold, my cámara de los cojones
Needless to say, I literally got nothing done this weekend. Again. Semana Santa is coming up after this week (meaning an entire week off of school), where Spain shows through its processions that Spanish Jesús is superior to all other Jesuses (Jesi?). Then a week of school. Then another entire week off for Feria, where I am in the middle of trying to book a mini-excursion to the north of Spain and then am going to this electronic music festival in Murcia, Spain so I can finally see The Bloody Beetroots. If only Donald Glover would somehow show up....or read this blog...
I love you
Alright, that's all I got for now. I'm watching "Inside Job" right now if anyone is curious. Found it with Spanish subs. Learning financial terms in Spanish, priceless. Completely related, I urge anyone who's interested in polisci at Michigan to take Polisci 300. Loved that class. Anyways, I leave you with a video I took last night.
And of course a song. To keep things related, one of Childish Gambino's best tracks - Freaks and Geeks
As I said in my last post, I'm totally sniping my friend's idea for a blog post and will review movies that I've seen over here in Sevilla. I'm not one of those snobs that only watches "good" movies either - absolutely shit-tastic movies are just as amazing to watch, MST3K style. That won't stop me from talking about obscure movies, however. Also, to keep with the whole Spanish business, most of these I ended up finding a version with Spanish dubs or at least Spanish subs. Unforunately, most only had subs. oh well. Also also, it may seem like all I do here is watch movies according to this list, but I only average one a week. Actually, I don't have to explain myself. HERE WE GO.
ARBITRARY MOVIE REVIEWS
1) Eastern Promises (2007)
Arbitrary Rating: Pretty damn good
This came out of nowhere for me. A series of off-tangent wikipedia searches led me to this movie. Why hadn't I heard about it in 2007?! Right from the get-go, this film has three things that I absolutely love: Naomi Watts whose character doesn't annoy the shit out of me (like she did in "The Ring," "King Kong," "Funny Games," "Mulholland Drive." Wow, that's actually a huge list.), Viggo Mortensen (arguably one of my favorite actors, incredibly underrated), and good Russian accents. It's hard not to describe the plot without revealing spoilers, but essentially Naomi Watts plays a nurse in London who helps a young Russian girl give birth to a baby, and the girl dies in childbirth. Watts finds the girl's diary and learns about the twisted ways of the Russian mob operating in London. Shit goes down. Acting is superb, with Viggo pulling a DiCaprio and learning every single aspect of a Russian mobster before performing his role. It shows.
2) The Mark of Caïn (2001)
Arbitrary Rating: Legitimately cool story, bro
As far as documentaries go, the overall quality of this one was pretty average. Production, pacing, stuff like that - all decent, but not amazing. However, if you became inordinately intrigued by the concepts presented in "Eastern Promises," then this will literally answer all of your questions. The documentary examines the dying tradition of Russian prison/criminal tattoos. The content of his documentary is amazing, and some of the shots of actual Russian prisons, actual Russian inmates, and the terrible conditions they have to deal with makes this a fairly powerful film. If you're unlike me and just went "meh" after seeing "Eastern Promises," then don't watch this documentary.
3) The Warrior's Way (2010)
The top caption is the best way to get people to see this movie
Arbitrary Rating: What the fuck did I just watch
Background: I was pretty sick last Saturday, to the point that I could barely even get out of bed. Thus, Saturday = movie day. Anyways, if Stephen Chow wrote and directed this movie, it would have been infinitely better. That being said, it wasn't the worst thing in the world. The first couple minutes got my hopes up. It had the makings of being an insanely goofy violent-western-samurai-comedy-movie. However, after 20 minutes it just turned into Kate Bosworth with a comically terrible southern/cowboy-esque accent, Geoffrey Rush (having recently seen his great performance in El Discurso del Rey) as an alcoholic sniper (yes I said that correctly), and a crazy silent Asian swordsman protagonist that makes all other characters' roles absolutely pointless. This swordsman literally just kills shart-loads of people in silly stylistic ways. But nothing came of it. The plot was nonexistent (protagonists kills literally everyone to become "the best," except this this stupid baby. Now his own clan wants him dead for not killing baby. Insert ninjas and cowboys. They all die. The end.). Again, this isn't the WORST example of a nonsensical-asian-happy-violent-action-movie. But when there's "Kung Fu Hustle," who needs anything else.
except I actually was.
4) I Saw the Devil (2010)
Arbitrary Rating: My rating comes in the form of this picture
I love foreign movies. Specifically, I love Korean and Japanese movies. Specifically specifically I love absurdly-violent-yet-extremely-amazing-by-the-virtue-that-they're-actually-good movies. "I Saw the Devil" is a beautiful example of this, although I will admit right away that it's not the best in its genre.Following in the footsteps of the master, Chan-wook Park ("Oldboy," hell, Kim even casts Min-sik Choi, the protagonist of "Oldboy," as the bad guy in his movie) Kim directs a movie about the malleability of one's moral compass when against a force truly evil. I'm going to keep comparing this movie to "Oldboy" because it's one of my favorite movies ever.
- Overall less disturbing than Oldboy, but only slightly.
- The plot and structure of the film is straightforward, so the viewer is just there for the ride. The ending does not hit you like a ton of bricks like Oldboy
- Min-sik Choi is the perfect antagonist, and Byung-hun Lee is perfect as the "good guy"
- There's this one scene that made me absolutely squirm. If a scene can still do that to me, I am impressed.
5) Spirited Away (2001)
Arbitrary Rating: If you still haven't seen this movie or didn't like it, fuck you
While I was sick last Saturday I was reading about a new animated movie Miyazaki wrote that is coming out, and it hit me that I really need to see this movie again. It's almost perfect. Do yourself a favor and see it. And if you are one of those people that claim "oh it's an ANIME lol, how can it possibly be good," refer again to the statement above.
6) A Serbian Film (2010)
Arbitrary Rating 1: If I were to run for Congress and it's somehow revealed that I've seen this movie, there's no way in hell I'd get elected
Arbitrary Rating 2: If you thought "The Human Centipede" was even remotely disgusting, do not see this movie
Arbitrary Rating 3: By me telling you not to see this, you'll probably see it anyways.
When interviewed how/why he made such a film, the screenwriter/director responded, "This is a diary of our own molestation by the Serbian government... It's about the monolithic power of leaders who hypnotize you to do things you don't want to do. You have to feel the violence to know what it's about." I suppose in retrospect that's what I saw. Who am I kidding, this movie's got rape written all over it - literally. I had seen clips of this movie shortly after it was available and I only saw it because of my need to see the most violent/disgusting film. This is it. Rape, infant-rape, skull-fucking, pole-fucking, rigor-mortis rape, murder-rape. You think I'm joking right now, but I literally could not have made this stuff up to save my life. It never makes you squirm though, which was the interesting part for me. The progression of the film actually pacifies you, paralyzes you, and progressively desensitizes you. So, by the most gruesome parts, you're just stting there accepting it. I suppose that's what the screenwriter wanted. Damn.
7) Four Lions (2010)
Arbitrary Rating: A brilliant film and astonishingly funny
Except I'm serious. I had zero expectations before seeing it, as I had heard absolutely nothing about it. As it turns out, it's essentially every American conservative's nightmare - British people. Even worse - British jihadists. Even worse worse - A comedy about British jihadists who want to join Al Qaeda/Taliban. It's a dark comedy that's absurdly intelligent. It's not like "The Hangover" funny, it's definitely more Simon Pegg/Nick Frost ("Shaun of the Dead," "Hot Fuzz.") Obviously so, it's a British film. It's really good.
8) The Midnight Meat Train (2008)
Arbitrary Rating: This is going to be a cult-classic one of these days
Biggest WTF ending I've seen since "Oldboy." But not like "OHHHHHH THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING" - definitely like "WHAT IS THIS, I DON'T EVEN." Still, it's got Bradley Cooper, Brooke Shields and Vinnie Jones. It's a good movie to watch with your buds. It's not good, per se, but it has its awesome "oh that did NOT just happen" moments. All in all, I approve.
9) Taken (2008) i.e. Liam Neeson Fucks Shit Up
Arbitrary Rating: Absolutely the best movie ever made. Period.
I've seen it quite a few times already, but THIS time I found a Spanish dub WITH Spanish subs. I just couldn't pass that up. But yeah, without actually being that great this movie is a one-man Liam Neeson train. He just spends the entire movie being the best dad ever. And killing. And being a bad-ass.
ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS FOR MOVIES THAT AREN'T NECESSARILY BETTER THAN THE PREVIOUSLY REVIEWED MOVIES
Today's my host-mom's birthday, so we (my host mom, me, and her 3 daughters) are heading to a nearby restaurant for some postres. So here are some other movies I've seen that can be summarized in a sentence
10) Let Me In (2010)
Rating: Don't see this, see "Let the Right One In," the original Swedish version.
-if it were an original concept, I would take the time to give it a decent review.
11) También la Lluvia (2010) (Even the Rain)
Rating: meta as shit
- I actually just remembered about this one but I'm too lazy to give it the credit it deserves. One more sentence, I saw this IN theatres here (obviously in Spanish, without subtitles) - it's ambicious and sentimental without being full of itself.
12) Cidade de Deus (2002)
Rating: The Portuguese "Pulp Fiction"
- I've seen this a bunch, but it was on TV in Spanish, and it's still fantastuc.
Fin
Stay tuned this week, as I'm going to write a post about the music I've been listening to over here.
I'm going to give mad props to Dylan Sedam (a friend from high school who is currently studying in Oviedo, Spain) and my brother for indirectly convincing me to start posting again. Combine these two strapping lads with the fact that I no longer have a rather hefty essay regarding "las relaciones México-Estados Unidos hasta 1852" due in a couple days, and for now I have tons of motivation to keep this bad boy alive. There's a downside to this story, of course. The immense amount of stress I felt last night while writing my paper somehow caused me to get sick again. I'm sure somebody knows that I'm talking about: as the night progresses, you feel your throat slowly get more and more aggravated and your sinuses start to pound. Yeah, that happened to me last night. Damn.
So it's been a month and some since my last post. Unlike Dylan's sarcastic boast that he's done nothing of importance in the past while (just before listing a dozen cities he's visited in the past two weeks), I will unsarcastically say that I've done quite a lot. London, Granada, shenanigans in Sevilla, lots of cool stuff. Of course, no blog posts followed in the wake of these epic excursions. My mindset was, "hey I took photos."
But in all seriousness, if I ever find the motivation, I'll write some nonsense about London.
Okay, so what should I write about? I could copy-paste what I have written so far of my essay for any of my readers who know Spanish to critique. I could take a picture of myself in my current "I'm sick, I need a haircut, I haven't shaved, and I don't give a fuck" state of mind. Actually I'll do that right now.
Yes, I do understand what I'm reading.
Now that that's over with, I actually going to do exactly what my friend Dylan did in his most recent blog post, review movies. But those will be in subsequent posts, that way I already have something in mind to write about. Sometimes, I amaze myself with how clever I am. Even Muldoon is impressed.
In case any of you were curious, which I genuinely hope some of you are, I actually am taking this study abroad experience seriously. I take real classes, including a class at the University's Law School on international law.
1) España Actual (Spanish politics from the second republic, early 1930s, until now)
2) Historia de las relaciones interamericanas (Relations between US and Latin American countries from the 18th century til now
3) A writing and grammar class through my program (implying that the rest are through the university)
4) Historia de las relaciones internacionales (International relations from 18th century til now)
5) Organizaciones Internacionales (aforementioned Law School class).
Moral of the story, I have lots of hours of class, and I'm on a late schedule. I do not go out every night. I don't have classes on Fridays, so I only go out Thursday, Friday, and Saturday - with the occasional exception of course. The rest of the time, I'm either taking it easy either by myself or with friends, doing homework, getting foreign friends into reddit (true story), or just walking around the city. This has left me with a little bit of time to keep doing what I love - watching movies and tv-shows, and listening to music. This post is already turning into a Catzilla of a post, so as I already said I'll write a new one very soon about movies, the one about music.
if you had this picture, you would find a way to post it
This is good enough for now. Although, I do have a question for you: what would you guys like me to write about? After movies and music, I'll be out of ideas. So please, I wouldn't mind doing a Q&A post or something like that. To prove that people actually read my blog (I sincerely hope people out there do!), let me know what I should write about.
As for a song that I recommend, boy do I have one for you. Justice - Civilization
With "Cross" still being one of my favorite electronic albums and "A Cross the Universe" being one of my all time favorite live albums, I didn't think it could get much better. Then the new line of Adidas commericals began to air, and their new track was the song. Holy shit. So good. The full track came out literally 2 days ago.
It's been two weeks again. I know I said that I'd crank out blog posts more often, but the sudden shock of having to write two papers two weeks ago and having real classes last week/from now on once more put this blogging operation on the backburner.
7 1/2 hours of class today left me in a fragile state. This is how I deal with my problems
So maybe I'll start posting more frequently? I really have no idea. All I know is that I'm REALLY looking forward to the next episode of How I Met Your Mother. Anyways, here's a collection of random anecdotes that have transpired over the course of my 1 month and 4 days in Sevilla. This will be a long post, but most of the space will be due to pictures. No big deal.
Día de San Valentín:
I'll start with a Valentine's Day theme, as apparently it is actually Valentine's Day... although I totally would NOT have noticed here. I asked Margarita (my host mom) if it's celebrated here, and she very enthusiastically said AW SHIT YEA (I might be exaggerating a little). But, I haven't seen a single "buy your significant other this and she'll/he'll love you again" commercial lately and I didn't notice anything different while walking around today. It's quite refreshing to not get blindsided by subversive advertising and an obscene amount of V-Day cards and other swag
Although I'd absolutely buy this one
Moral of the story - I probably got a poor impression of Día de San Valentín. Oh well, you'll always be in my heart, Ellie Goulding:
For the love of God, please be my Valentine. And wife
Zapatos:
The Spaniards LOVE their shoes. There are shoes stores literally everywhere you walk. There are streets in Sevilla where I'm pretty sure there are nothing but Shoe stores. Same thing when I was in Madrid for the weekend several weeks back - Shoes. Shoes everywhere.
What am I getting at with all this? Well, I was hoping to buy a pair of shoes while in Madrid, as the past month has been the month of "Rebajas," or sales. I probably went to over 20 different Shoes stores in Madrid alone, and other clothing stores that also sold shoes. EVERY time, the conversation went more or less like this:
Me: "Hi, I'm looking for this pair of shoes *holds up pair* in size 47 (European sizes... weird)"
Clerk: *Eyes widen, looks at my feet, eyes widen even more* "Oh no, nobody has shoes in THAT size. You should try looking online"
Me: "Are you serious? My feet aren't that big in the United States. Is there really that much of a difference here?"
Clerk: *Appalled that I mentioned Amurrica, scoffs* "Well, I suppose so..." *walks away*
Size 13 US, not a terribly uncommon size. Paul Roberts can attest to that.
I am Disappoint
The Pickpocket:
Since I briefly touched on Madrid, I may as well tell this little story. The first night in Madrid was great. Huge city, lots of people. lots of things to do. After exiting a bar with a couple amigos, I walk down the street for a bit and, upon turning the corner, I was accosted by a rather peculiar man (although admittedly he was probably around my age). I wasn't in the best state in the world, so I found the following to be rather entertaining. He grabbed my shoulders, shook me, then shouted at me, telling me to look at his feet as he attempted to do a Flamenco dance. As I was distracted, I noticed that one of his hands left my shoulder and started patting my left pocket. After the patting stopped, he stopped, then gave me the biggest troll face in the world
Yes. This face, he did it to me.
At this point my friends were a ways ahead of me, so I ran around the corner to catch up, checking my pockets to make sure the silly man didn't take anything. By the time I got to my friends, however, I realized that the bastard took my phone. So, what did I do? Did I:
a) Announce this to my friends then run back as a group to get my phone back
b)Assume the dude had bolted upon snatching my phone and just keep going
c) Assume the dude was waiting with some sort of weapon so that when I returned he could threaten me and take more stuff
d) Throw caution to the wind and sprint back to the scene of the crime without telling anyone
If you guessed (a), you clearly have too much faith in my abilities (If you're reading this, Dylan Sedam, I'm NOT going to copy your Star Wars reference). The correct answer was of course (d). I sprinted back. The dude was still there. I didn't accost him back, but I did, very loudly, demand that he give my phone back. He laughed, then patted my shoulder saying how impressed he was with my boldness, then gave my phone back. In retrospect, that DEFINITELY could've ended a lot worse. But that night, that was quite a victory.
America: Eleventy-Billion-and-1 Spain: 0
Mc-Freaking-Donalds:
There's not one part of this story that I shouldn't be embarrassed about. Anyways, there's a McDonalds in the same building as my program center. Thus, I pass by it literally every day (Sorry Aaron Handsman, there are ZERO Wendy's in Spain. They just don't exist. BK and McDonalds are everywhere, but no Wendy's). Anyways, after a month in Spain I decided it was high time to get some American goodness for a snack. Moreover, it came to my attention that I had never had a Big Mac before. Ever. Challenge Accepted
Sweet, sweet victory
The sudden realization that I lack PS on my laptop is appalling.
Street Performers:
Every weekend I like to walk around a single plaza, Plaza Nueva, and its connecting street, Constitución. Why? There are hundreds of people and dozens of street performers. Check it!
This happened at a bar, but it's too funny to not post. Just wait for it...
(I have this cool video of a guy dressing up as a couple dancing, but the video won't upload. I'll try again later)
Ohhh lawd. I called them Street Performers
Something about a potential law that could censor the internet. whatevs.
HOW IS HE DOING THIS.
That's all I've got, but I'll be sure to snap shots of more silly street performers that are worth my camera's attention.
So, sorry for the long post. I leave you with one more thing:
It´s been exactly two weeks since my last blog post, and I haven´t really missed it that much. As I said in my first post, I knew that I´d get to a point where I just wouldn't want to summarize my life here, even if it has been, exciting , thought provoking, and eye-opening.
My eye-opening thoughts exactly, philosoraptor (obligatory LOTR reference)
Thus, my "narrative period" will withdraw from the octagon for the time being, and in its place I will have themed posts that will hopefully be a little shorter. And maybe I'll throw in some more pics, both real and internet-related. I dunno, sounds like a plan right? Vale, seguimos.
As the title suggests, my mind has hit a crossroads. One which not even Britney Spears nor Ralph Macchio can relate to.
I actually own this movie, too.
Lo siento, puta
Since my seminar class started, I've taken speaking Spanish incredibly seriously. We signed a written contract promising that we wouldn't speak English at our center, and so far I've adhered to that rule. And during the week, I'm pretty damn good at sticking to dat español. Weekends, I'm a little more lax, particularly at nights. I mean, hey, speaking Spanish all the time is legitimately taxing. Nobody realizes it (I'll be the first to admit it) when you're sitting in a classroom in Ann Arbor only speaking the language for only 3 hours a week. Now, the first bit of English I read/hear/type/say on a weekday is around 7:30pm when I come home and check my e-mail.
Por eso, I now suck at both languages. My English is actually getting worse, as I find myself having to edit what I type all the time because it literally makes zero sense. And then my Spanish, while it is legitimately improving at a crazy rate, is still not lo mejor. It's even more discouraging when some Sevillanos who I do end up meeting and having enjoyable conversations with always say "noo, tu español es muy bueno!" But how can I believe that? I'm just not good enough.
Take dinner for instance. JODER, as I'm writing this I just realized I didn't take a picture of my meal, something that I vowed I would start doing. ANYWAYS, On the news there was a brief story on Zapatero (the current Prime Minister of Spain), and I decided to prompt a discussion with my host mom, Margarita, regarding her thoughts on Spanish politics and Zapatero in general. As an aside, the good ol' USA would shit itself if somebody like Zapatero were President. He's a goddamn SOCIALIST. Errr (reads ideology), wait a second....
This man wants to take your money. And your children. And everything you've worked hard to attain in your capitalist nation. Obama's got nothing on him.
Upon asking, "Margarita, le gusta las políticas de Zapatero?" She within a second responds with a vigorous head-shaking, "No. Zapatero no está llevando el país muy bien." I inquired further, because I'm legitimately interested in international politics, and Margarita clearly had some strong opinions about this man. However, my lack of political vocabulary and ability to quickly and seamlessly formulate complex sentence structures prevented me from having the super in-depth conversation that I truly wanted. I occasionally got a few good points in, but for the most part I was like Colin Firth before Geoffrey Rush saved the day.
obligatory oscar film reference
While talking about politics was rad, it could've been exponentially more rad. A couple times a week Margarita tells me, "No te preocupes, Griffin. En unos meses hablarás como si fueras un Sevillano!"
I really hope tiene razón. In the meantime, please check out this new photo album from my various excursions around Sevilla and a day trip to Cádiz, a most beautiful coastal city!
Next Episode, I'll chronicle just how goddamn hard it has been (and still is) to find a pair of shoes in my size. Spaniards and their tiny feet.
This will probably be a hilariously long post because, as the title suggests, my weekend was awesome and I really want to share it with you in decent detail. And, contrary to what most of you think, I've received some very kind compliments regarding how I write. So, just suck it up and LET'S GO.
Classes started on Wednesday, and until February 7 I'm only taking 3 hours of class a day. An hour lecture on Spanish culture (the past couple days have been political history, and this week we're doing art), an hour of conversation (my super hilarious gesticulating professor Enrique talks with his hands, and we literally just talk about whatever. We're supposed to talk about our assigned readings, but that just doesn't happen), and an hour of grammar. Our grammar professor, Juan, is seriously the most intelligent person I've ever met. He learned English at Cambridge, so whenever he says a phrase in English, it's with a slightly British accent. Again, we don't actually go over that much grammar. He just talks about Spain and Sevilla, and we listen intently because he has that aura that captivates whoever is within his vicinity.
So yeah. My classes. They are awesome and very manageable. And the best part - the schedule. Class 3-5, 6-7. This facilitates going out every night like Appeasement facilitated the growth of Nazi Germany.
FRIDAY:
NOW we get to the weekend. Getting only 4 hours of sleep, I had to get up at 8:30 to pack and shower before meeting in the lobby of the hotel to receive our alojamientos (home stay family). Then gradually, the host families began to take us all away to our new lives. My host mother arrived around noon. Her name is Margarita, and she's totally a baller. She's a single mother in a beautiful apartment (she has a 30 year old daughter who lives here too, but she's currently in London on business. Yes, that sort of living situation is very common here in Spain). Margarita is incredibly friendly, an amazing cook, and also respects my privacy and life. During meals we talk about politics, sports, recent news, pretty much anything. A sheet we received about specific things we should run by our host-families suggested that most families want their students to be back by a specific time when they go out. But it seems that every family that my program has, including Margarita, does not give even an iota of a shit. To be discussed later, but I came home at like 3am Friday night, and the next afternoon she commented at how early I got back.
Oh yeah, I HAZ A DOG. A two year-old black lab named Lída. She's awesome and finally is warming up to me.
OH HAI LÍDA
To see how awesome this apartment is and more, check out the photo album I just made on my facebook. Or, to make it easier for you lazy fools, HERE
So I got situated in my new home by 12:30pm, had a delicious lunch at 2, then went to class at 3. Got out at 7, came back home for dinner, which again was delicious, exotic, exquisite, [insert any adjective that describes food that South Quad food could never ever replicate. pro-tip, that's every positive adjective in the english language]. Now, it's a Friday night - shit was gonna go down. So after a very heartfelt skyping with my parents and a slightly in-your-face skyping with Joe Mifsud (That's right, suck it), I leave at midnightish to meet up with some girls in my group and we go to a very familiar place - La Carbonería! (see second blog post). On a Friday night, this place was happening. Adults and students alike come to bars, so the atmosphere was really awesome. So I go ahead and order an AMAZING mojito and a pitcher of beer for myself, and the drinking games commence. Here, have some candid photos:
After a round of shots, we peace out and look for a club. Of course, the bouncer was not going to have a group of drunk Americans into his club, so with a very douchey "do you have an invitation?" We were denied access. At this point, we were fairly lost. So, las chicas decided to take taxis to get the hell out of there. When deciding between option a) take a taxi, spend a couple euros, get home safely guaranteed, and option b) ask drunk people how to get to Avenida Menendez Pelayo so then I can get home - safety not guaranteed, I look at my phone which reads 3am, and I stubbornly say,
Walking the Labyrinth that is Sevilla, I ask assorted drunk people how to get to this Avenida. One dude was making fun of the fact that I could understand spanish (what?) so I responded with a "jodete" and went along my merry way. In case you don't know, "jodete" = a very popular Cee-Lo Green song. I'll leave you to figure that one out.
It's 3:20am, I get home. I pass out.
SATURDAY:
wake up at 2:30pm. I walk to the kitchen to say my good mornings not knowing what time it is, Margarita has both breakfast AND lunch out. The first word that comes out of my mouth today is english, but in spanish it's "joder." Again, figure that out. Thankfully, Margarita is amazing, is glad I slept so much, and wants to know if I want both breakfast AND lunch. (See above video for response)
I meet up with some friends (for future reference, friends = people from my program until otherwise stated) by the river to decide what we're going to do during our entire day of absolute freedom. Most of the pictures that are currently in the facebook album that I linked above were from today, so that gives you basically an idea of where I was. But specifically, we decided to make an hour-long walk down a single road to the Real Betis fútbol stadium to get tickets to the Real Betis - FC Barcelona game thats on the 19th. Get super drunk and watch the best Football Club in the world lay smackdown on Betis for only 40 euros? Sign me up.
soon my dear... soon
Unfortunately, when we finally go to the front of the line to buy tickets, the vendor told us that we could not just buy one ticket per person and get seats together, which would obviously allow us to pay with a credit card - we had to pay all at once. So do the math: there's 13 of us there, and we need to buy like 15-17 tickets at 40 euros a pop. We had to scrounge up some serious euros. So two of us went back in line and dropped 600+ euros in cash (somebody took a picture of the vendor counting all the money, but it hasn't been uploaded yet).
WHADDUP
We had back to our homes to have dinner, then meet back up at like 11:30 to celebrate a friend's 21st birthday. And oh man did we.
All the guys meet up beforehand and botellón a bit before we go to a little bar for some cheap beers. After a bit, I somehow end up talking to two Sevillanas (female Sevillians/chicas of seville/etc). They ended up being really nice and loved talking to me in Spanish and attempting to talk to me in English. Then I met two guys named Sergio and Carlos. Normally when I introduce myself or have to put a name on a food order, Sevillanos cannot for the life of them pronounce my name on the first try, but it's pronounced essentially "Greefeen," which is always silly. Sergio, however, says it perfectly: "Like Peter Griffin, right?" NICE. I talk with these four people for quite awhile before I notice that my group is leaving. I have all of their numbers, and each of them said that if I ever want to hang out/get tapas/practice spanish with them so they can practice english me, I can just call them. Hopefully they weren't just bullshitting me and hopefully these are actually their numbers. So far, Sevillanos have not been overly friendly toward us foreigners. Again, somebody took pictures while we were at this bar, so once they get posted and tagged and everything you can see them on my facebook.
We leave the bar and head to a little side-street that literally consists of a dozen bars, each serving mad-cheap (1.50 euro) specialty shots. I get a shot with Vodka, Grenadine, and Baileys, and two shots of something called "la dulcinea." I don't remember what was in la dulcinea, but they were all delicious. While hanging around the street, I met a group of students from England, New Zealand, Ireland, and Scotland. Then I met two guys from France who are also here in Sevilla studying Spanish. I talked to them about Electronic music (Justice, dubstep, House) and Yelle. In Spanish. It was pretty freakin' sweet.
Meanwhile, inside one of the bars, the girl in our group whose birthday it was became the victim of overly flirty Sevillanos who didn't take no for an answer. While she was pushing them away (literally), this crazy Spanish girl started pulling her hair and trying to fight her. Apparently some other people in our group had to break up the fight. I seriously cannot believe I missed that.
EDIT: After asking this girl if I got my facts right and if I forgot anything, she said this: "you forgot the part that while looking for CHUPITOS (shots) i ended on the floor, with some angry spanish mobster girlfriend on top of me pulling out my hair.thats what you forgot
Anyways,
By 1:30am (I think) we get to our destination: Club Buddha. For 8 euros, we get in and get a free drink. My drink of choice - vodka with fanta. Of course, it literally was vodka with fanta. The bartender poured like a 3/4 full glass of vodka then handed me a bottle of fanta. Win. The guys from International Party Sevilla and Discover Sevilla (two separate companies. I have met Manuel, who I'm now facebook friends with, and Tova, from a previous post) were there and guided us to the 3rd floor. From 3am until we left, House music. Pure, sweet, delicious House music. Amazing speakers. Amazing bass. Lots of people, mostly Sevillanos/as. Again, I didn't take pictures, but somebody did. They will be uploaded. The dj dropped track after track that I recognized. 95% of them I loved. the other 5% were really stupid remixes that I hated. But nonetheless, it was beautiful.
not my picture, but this was it.
By 5am we were all pretty exhausted. I had no idea where I was and, once again, no taxi for me. Two friends guide me to Plaza Nueva (the area where I botellóned earlier) so that I could then find my way back home. It was quite a walk. By 6am, I'm home. I pass out.
