I am sure you want to know what the night life is like. I am going to try and recollect the craziness from last night. As you all know, I don't drink at all, so just remember that this a completely sober recollection. Enjoy.
Also, let me just warn you that there is a lot of confusion with names for you, since there are so many. I will try my best to clarify who is who.
Katie=My first friend here, the girl I roomed with in the hotel in Madrid when we went there for a 5 day tour before going to San Sebastian, as well as in the hotel in San Sebastian for one night before we went to our host family.
Angela=One of the girls in our "group" that consists of the boys (Bo, Luke, Dave) and Katie, Angela and me. She is from Columbia and speaks fluent Spanish and English.
Bo: From Glenview area, we met at the airport when we landed in Madrid.
Luke and Dave: Luke and Bo went to Iowa together, and stayed together in Madrid. Dave and Luke found they were going to be roommies here in SS, and became fast friends.
Ana and Natalia: aka Las Columbianas. Whenever referring to these sisters, we call them the Columbianas because they obviously are from Columbia, but also travel attached at the hip, so whenever you talk about one, the other's usually involved. Natalia is 1 year older in school.
Megan: Las Columbianas' roommate. She's cool...I only met her yesterday.
Okay, if you don't already know this, people go out late here. In the US, "late" is around 10pm. No, Spaniards eat dinner at 9pm...so that is not late at all for them. I ate at 9pm with my host family, which I will discuss in another post, and after that I bid them farewell. I walked to Las Columbianas' place by the cathedral (smack in the middle of El Centro). At 10:15pm it was pretty dead, but when I mean dead I mean I still probably saw 30 people walking around in the entire 15 minute walk. People were out walking their dogs and whatnot, so it was still a SAFE "dead" town.
So I got to their place, and Ana was Skyping (online video chat), and Natalia and Megan had just woken up from their late siestas. Ana was feeling sick and took some cold medicine, so she was going to go out but take it easy b/c she didn't want some odd medicinal reaction with the alcohol and Spanish Theraflu, and she just didn't want to feel crappy in general from the alcohol. So I hung out there while they did their makeup and got dressed, and we played music and had some fun. They were also drinking some wine, obviously common in Europe, as well as hard cider, which are popular at places called sidrerias, where it is like a tavern dedicated to cider...hard cider. I didn't know these places served hard cider and when I found it was alcoholic I was a bit disappointed, since the idea of filling up your cup under a spout of an enourmous barrel of cider seemed like fun. But I tasted the stuff the girls were drinking, and to me it tasted like any other alcohol...just like it smells. Ick.
So we left their apartment at midnight or so (I wasn't paying too close attention to time, but I assume this would be it). Us four walked to Molly Mallone's, an Irish Pub (yes, in Spain...but apparently it is popular) a few blocks away. We went there and the entire USAC group (the people from the US who are travelling here to study abroad and were with us either in Madrid or Madrid and the San Sebastian hotel) was there, probably about 30 in total. The place was packed, a lot of the crowd was our age to about 30 years old. Early in the night, Natalia and I were leaning against the railing that looked over to the bottom floor (only about 6 feet down), where there was a man playing guitar who clearly spoke no English, yet was playing "Paint it Black"(The stones), "Dream On"(Aerosmith) and "Underneath it All"(No Doubt) in English. Natalia got a beer and set it on the railing, and tells me "Hey, don't knock this over! Be very careful!" Meanwhile, I am exchanging numbers with some girls in the USAC group so we could stay in contact, then I hear a weird dull thunk. I ignore it and continue talking to them. When I am done, Natalia grabs my attention, laughing and frantic at the same time, saying she knocked the glass over, and it shattered on the amp below. I was laughing so hard. The Spaniards who were sitting on the lower level were all staring at Natalia and me. Natalia quickly snuck away, and with her super short stature, it wasn't too hard. She couldn't handle the accusing eyes. I stood there for a while chatting with people, then moved since I was now in the guilty spot and the Spaniards would stare at ME if I looked down. Apparently after it happened, the singer said "I like to live dangerously" in Spanish when the cords got all wet. I moved over to the other group of people to yell at Natalia for making the entire lower level think I am a moron for knocking over a glass. She was so embarrassed but laughing at the same time. It was great. After being there for a while, we got ready to leave. Everyone stepped out, but Natalia had to go to the bathroom, so I said I would go with her so she wouldn't be left behind. There we met a completely drunk British lady who was telling us how to pronounce words in English and sound proper. "It's not 'NAW'...it's 'Nooooooooo.' It's not 'HEY YOU!' It's 'Hellllllloooooo...'"
No one was coming out of the stalls for about 10 minutes, so I went outside to wait for here, and the USAC kids were out there as well. When we were outside, Megan was talking to these two French guys about our age, who only spoke French and Spanish, so obviously the latter was how we communicated. The four of us chatted a while, me with the red shirt guy and Megan with the giant-birthmark-on-the-neck guy, until people got antsy. During this time I also got a phone call from some Spanish guy who I couldn't understand, so I gave it to Angela, who was somewhat tipsy, and she chatted with him for about 5 or six minutes. Apparently he thought I was someone named Lara, and he was talking to her about going to a club. Everyone was starting to go, so I just told Annette to tell me where they were going so we could meet them...I pulled out a map, and since she was pretty drunk (it was her birthday), she responded by saying "Hey, no, don't use a map! This is the WEEKEND. Use a map on the WEEKDAYS! We are going whereEVER! We don't need a PLAN!" And so on and so forth. I tried to explain to her drunken self that I would need to know where the heck the group was going so that we could meet up. She didn't quite understand. I told her we couldn't just wander aimlessly around the bar area trying to find everyone. She didn't understand. I gave up on talking to Annette.
Finally, everyone decided to wait around until everyone was out of the bathrooms and such. Everyone started walking in the direction of the bar except Megan, who was happily chatting with the French boys. Ana, who was anxious to MOVE ON ALREADY was across the street, shouting to Meghan in English "GIVE UP ALREADY! HE'S NOT EVEN CUTE! LET'S GOOOOO!" We finally got her and started walking. By now there was only about 14 of us. We walked there and I was linked arm in arm with Angela, who was...how do you say...very jolly. We walked and walked, then got to Bar Tas Tas, where we had gone a few nights ago (a few nights ago it was packed...but only because USAC was there...before that there were about 2 spaniards). Last night it was PACKED with a ton of different people. We ran into Angela C., Peter, Maria and Meghan, who are all Loyola people in USAC (except Maria...she's Norwegian and in USAC). We were there for only about 2 or three songs...and I don't think anyone in our group got drinks. We left pretty fast.
We moved on and started walking a bit. In this walk we ran into some Spanish boys about our age and they started walking with us to the next bar. Also in this walk, Bo kept complaining that he had to pee. We kept telling him to just pee on the street, since there was practically no one around and the dogs pee on the streets too. He obliged. We then arrived at the next place, which I don't know what it was called. We walked in and had to show IDs, so we are all lined up at the door shuffling for IDs (here it's only 18 to drink). When I get to the front, the guy just looks at me and lets me pass. I thought he was doing it to all the girls (common practice), but he only did it to me. I guess I am special. We go downstairs to a dance floor and bar, FILLED with kids our age and younger. It was like going to a school dance...that had a bar. All the people there were Spanish, from what I could tell. We stayed here a while. Angela was having fun talking to Spanish boys. I saw a broken bottle in the corner of the dancefloor and jokingly blamed it on Natalia. Apparently it was actually Ana's fault...she tried to clink bottles with someone and used a little too much force. She then swept the remnants in the corner with her foot. After this bar, much of our group left, since it was getting pretty late. I really was not keeping track of time, but I am sure it was pretty late. Katie, for example, had to go to class at 9am today. So did Annette, but the birthday girl didn't want to go home yet. We gathered the troops and moved out, waiting outside of the bar until everyone was out. It looked like they were closing the bar as well, since the metal rolling door was halfway pulled down. I only noticed this because Bo smacked his head on it to go back in to use the bathroom. Then nearly smacked his head, along with Luke, as they exited.
We were lingering outside of this place for a bit, since people who have had a few drinks can't make decisions. There was another group of Spaniards, about 20 of them, guys and girls, who were our age wandering around too. Bo said he thought one of the girls was hot, and Angela took the liberty to waltz straight up to the group and chat with them in Spanish about life in general. Bo said to me he would completely die inside if she called her over. She didn't. But, on the way to Bar Be Bop, we chatted with these people and made quick friends.
Guy: De donde eres? (where are you from)
Me: Soy de Chicago. (I am from chicago)
Guy: AHHH! Si! Chicago...Bulls? Me gustan!
Me: Hahaha, si, si.
They told us they were students studying to be teachers and this was their big party out to club ZM on the beach. They were begging us to go. At this point, Angela, Annette and I were with the Spaniards outside of Bar Be Bop, where all our friends were. We chatted with the guy and with Elena, another Spaniard. They kept telling us we were super nice people and they wanted to hang with us. We couldn't ditch our friends, so we said we'd exchange numbers and hang with them sometime in the next 5 months. Annette and Elena exchanged numbers, then we went in the bar. By this point, Elena's friends were getting a bit mad b/c they were chatting with us for so long and their group wanted to move on.
We went into the Bar Be Bop and it was PACKED. This time the crowd was a bit older, about mid-20's to early 30's. Natalia told me about some man who was hitting on her before I arrived, making obscene comments and gestures. She was now hiding from him.
We were here for a while, where many odd things happened. Let me just say that when you are in a bar like this, or maybe ALL bars, if you make eye contact with the opposite sex, they will approach you. It can be a bit awkward. I was looking for the rest of our group, since at one point I only was with Angela for a long time and could not find anyone else. I was a bit concerned that they left us. We were together the whole time, though, so it was fine.
While looking around for Bo, Luke or Dave, I accidentally made eye contact with some guy, who walked up to me as his friends all watched, and the conversation was something like this:
Man: Speak Spain?
Me: Como?
Man: (points to me and nods in affirmation) You Speak Spain?
Me: El espanol? Si.
Man: You...from here?
Me: No, de los Estados Unidos (the US).
Man: Ah. Tu amiga. Esta alla? (Is she there?) (points to corner to a USAC girl)
Me: No, estoy buscando a mi amiGO.
Man: Oh, (stepping back as though I rejected him), vale (okay).
Meanwhile Angela is with me having a GREAT time. We were talking a bit, then she randomly says "Okay. Let's speak Spanish now!" and turns to the closest guy and says "Hola, Soy Angela, y tu?" (Hey, I am angela, and your name?) and begins a conversation. In the course of the next half hour we danced and hung out while a part of me was concerned that we couldn't find any of our group. Also in this time I was approached to play the "ice cube game" where you stand in a circle and pass an ice cube to the person on your left by holding it in your mouth. I was a bit disgusted by this, so I just ignored them. We stepped outside and finally found Bo, Ana, Megan and Natalia. I went to get Angela, but she decided to go home with her other group of friends (some guys she knows from school in Nevada who are also visiting Spain) and Annette decided to stay with them, too. May, another USAC girl, wanted to go home with Ana, so they walked back to El Centro while Natalia, Bo, Megan and I began to walk to Luke and Dave's apartment.
Bo, who has been to their apartment everyday at least twice a day, could not find it, and when we did, said to buzz 2-1 (it's actually 1-2). Luckily I knew the address and number, so we made no mistakes. We got up to their apartment and Luke was sleeping in his room, and Dave and their roommate Alex was there. By now it was about 3:45 am. For a while Natalia, Dave and Alex discussed who would sneak into Luke's room and sleep in his bed for the night since Megan and Natalia decided to stay over. This discussion was about an hour long. Natalia asked if they had any alcohol and Dave brought out what looked like absinthe, since it was bright green. It was something peppermint.
What followed, the description of the flavor, was something as follows:
"This tastes like toothpaste and rubbing alcohol."
"It tastes like someone melted down spearmint gum"
"It tastes like crap."
One reason why I don't drink.
Eventually we worked out the sleeping situation...Bo on the couch, Dave in his own bed, Alex and Megan in Alex's bed (it's a queen), and I think Natalia went into Luke's room, since he has a king size. I didn't previously tell my host parent's that I'd stay somewhere else, so I thought it was best to go home. We called a cab and had difficulty communicating since the operator had no idea what street I was saying, but we eventually figured it out and I took one home at 5:30am. The ride was about 8 euros.
I arrived at my family's home and went to sleep.
Intense, right?
