the 23rd of april: not as well known in the states as it is in spain for the day that shakespeare and cervantes died. not quite deserving of a day off of school, but enough to postpone my test-studying for two hours to witness the atmosphere of what is "la noche de los libros" and worthy of 6.30 euros of my 10 for the next week. on this special day, the book stores in sol and around the city stay open until midnight with storewide sales on books. even though madrid already has a vibrant nightlife, staying out late for books makes it seem a little more moral. so the book that i decided to purchase for memoirs sake and entertainment as i bake for a week on a beach before coming to the states is called sabor a chocolate. i'd tell you what it's about but i haven't started it yet. though it has promise - a tale of love, fate, and my favorite of all, chocolate.
i'm uncomfortable at the moment with the feeling that i had so many things to write about and have now forgotten because of the events of today, which are numerable and noteworthy, but i hate forgetting things... oh well on to today.
kasey, cleo, and jenna made plans to go to a town called aranjuez, about 30 min south of madrid by train. they intended to take an old wooden train, costing about 24 euros, complete with strawberries and period-costumed conductors. however they were insuccessful in the hunt for this train and ended up taking the cercanias which is free with our metro passes. so 10:23 this morning i got a text, rolled my lazy self out of bed and caught up with them in aranjuez. the way there is a story in itself. i sat on the train leaving a space in between me and another gentleman in a row of three seats. on trods a larger fellow who sits in between us (don't be fooled the story has nothing to do with the other man on the right, but indeed the larger, wearing a navy blue suit with a lime green polka-dotted tie, smoke smell seeping out of his skin and clothes, a cane, and the audacity to kiss my hand - twice). he introduced himself in uninterpretable spanish stupor, the kind i had to ask him to repeat at least twice to understand. he asked where i was going and upon admitting "aranjuez" he proceeded to tell me all the cool things to do there. this i didn't mind, until he interrupted himself to explain what pretty eyes, nose, and mouth i had. awkward. so i put my headphones on and every once in a while he'd chime in to explain some random thing, or touch my leg so i'd stop bouncing it. tortillera, as he explained, is the word for two girls who like to chupa (suck, with sicknasty tongue movements) each other. ie lesbians. could have done without that coloquial word. he finally got off the stop before mine, and as he left (this is where the second hand kissing came in to play) i saw other people on the train looking at me with a pathetic look of oh that poor girl. i sulked a bit, but rapidly recovered and set off in the city known for its gardens and strawberries (fresas). all we did basically was walk around in a bunch of gardens. they're gorgeous, don't get me wrong, just big. we took many photo ops, witnessed two grown ducks try to drown baby ducks in a pond (upon which cleo and i pelted rocks at the asshole ducks... one of the saddest things i've seen and i intend to pray for those baby ducks... maybe check on them in the morning...) and then finished the day with two bushels (can you use the word bushel for strawberries?) of strawberries and a magnum (awesome european icecream - must seek out in america). on the way home we decided to bamf it up: you're technically supposed to purchase a train ticket because the trip there (although we could take that for free) took us outside of our prescribed zone. however we conspired to play dumb if anyone asked, which they didn't, and in total i spent 1 euro 80 the whole trip. awesome.
after we got home we met up with isabel (awesomest director, yes awesomest) and her boyfriend who had an art exhibition going on in a local cafe. he's into black and white photography which i'm glad i can appreciate thanks to classes in high school. we sat, chatted, had some cafe con leche, someone asked if i was from seville, and isabel so kindly paid for our drinks. still, my maximum spendage remained at 1.80, leaving me 4.10 until wednesday (which i consider making money because i thought i only had 4 euros to begin with). quite a successful day.
during dinner at home with emilia and antonio, they commented on how much better my spanish has gotten and it made me happy. i enjoy getting to just carry on normally in conversations. granted i stutter every once and again, but languages in general just fascinate me OH i remembered what else i wanted to explain.
so on friday i had another medio ambiente (geography class) excursion through the newer part of madrid. we walked a decent amount through a part of the city i've never been, the rich side which is a lot greener, less dirty, and less touristy, oh and more expensive. although i can't afford it even when i'm not struggling, it's just cool to explore and look at. so i'd like to spend some more time up there over my next 5 day weekend (baller, right?) we saw some nice neighborhoods which smelled as good as they were aesthetically pleasing. we ended the field trip with a visit to the top of a 30 story building, coincidentally across the street from the real madrid stadium. it was emotional. haha. i made friends with the security guard who took us up, juan carlos, who, as i explained that i'm having more than difficulties trying to get tickets to a game, offered to let me up to the roof again the night of the barcelona game. although i can't see far enough to see the field in the stadium, to see that kind of atmosphere from that perspective would be extraordinary. so hopefully that will work out.
so after spending the rest of that day watching tv in my bed, it was refreshing and called for to get out of the house today and i'm glad i did. i take too much for granted the things i have so easily accessible to me and it's starting to hit me how little time i have left. there's still many things i'd like to do, but thanks to, as i briefly noted earlier, an upcoming 5 day weekend, 4 day after that (during which i'll be in london), a three day week of school, and then exams, well i've got some scheduling to do.
when my friend chad was here he explained to me that as annoying as it is, forgetting english is turning out to be a good sign. that said - i find as write these anecdotes that i'll spanish phrases will pop to my head and just barely make it out of my fingers before i realize you probably won't understand it. but just as there are like 15 different words for snow to an eskimo, sometimes i feel like explaining things with spanish phrases that don't exactly translate to english. phrases like "tiene pinta de" which is like it has a paint of... or it seem like it could be cool (for example). k that's the only example i can think of at the moment but it's still kinda neat... oh bilingualism.
