Lots of days

 I just realized that I haven't blogged in far too long! I'll take some time, listen to Landon Pigg, and try to remember everything from the past few days.

Friday:
I had no class, yet again. I don't remember exactly what I did during the day, but it probably involved the beach.  Friday night, a group of us met up to go out to Paseo and also to see the real "bolletón" (literally hundreds of young people go on this one sidewalk right next to the ocean where tons of gorgeous boats are kept and take bottles of alcohol to drink before going to dance in the clubs, because drinks are so expansive inside the clubs) which happens in front of Paseo. It was insane!! I had heard about it but didn't quite realize the number of people that were going to be there. It was really awesome, and I only had 2 vasos de vino! We were celebrating Kendra's 21st birthday that night, so we went to a club and danced to Spanish music. That was pretty fun.. except we didn't know the words to the Spanish songs when everyone else in the club was shouting them. We left early (around 3:30am) to head home since we weren't having that much fun and were all getting tired.

Saturday:
Slept a lot. Went to the beach again, but it was super cold. Tonight, my Swedish friend had invited us to "pre-game" (I lol'ed so hard when he used that word) before Paseo, because some of his friends from Sweden were coming to visit. We were all so excited to meet more Swedish people! After almost forgetting to get alcohol and having to call someone to get some for a few of us, we headed over to his apartment. His apartment is so nice and in such a good location too. There were about 10 Swedish people total and about 6 of us Americans. They had loud music playing, drinking card games, and good conversation. We were having a lot of fun over there, some of which included a person who wishes to remain anonymous locking herself in the bathroom and trying to figure out what an "E" means on a Swedish playing card [it means Ace].. until the cops came to the door. Yes, cops on motorcycles came to the door and said there had been a noise complait and that we all had to leave the apartment, and they waited for everyone to leave. Bad neighbors. We all filed out into the street with the cops awkwardly while they rode through the middle of our group on their motorcycles and left. It was kind of hilarious, but also quite annoying since it was too early to go to Paseo. We started walking towards Paseo to head to a small bar to get drinks and talk before going to dance. At one point, we were stopped in the street talking and we saw this man riding a bike just fine.. until he suddenly steered to the left and ran into a building. Then he proceeded to get up, walk in circles around his bike, and yell that he was going to kill someone. I was kinda frightened, but being that I was in a large group which included a lot of guys and was slightly tipsy, it was fine. We strolled down the street for a long time (I was the only one who brought alcohol with me, so I shared my last few beers with people) and finally got to some club they wanted to go to. They were playing American 70's rock music which was awesome but so unexpected. We hung there for an hour or two just talking and drinking. Around 1 or 2 we decided we should go to Paseo to dance, since it was only then the appropriate time to go out (seriously.. if you go out before 1am, you are crazy or just foreign). We took some cabs since it was a pretty long walk. We went into one club that was lame for like 3 minutes then left. Then we went back into the same bar that we went to last weekend because 1. it is free and 2. it plays good dancing music. We all danced and sang and had fun until one of the Swedes had a bit too much to drink, so then almost all of the Swedes left to take him home (again, it was so early.. around 3:30ish and we were prepared to stay out til the sun rose). Brittany and I decided we wanted to leave too because we were disappointed so most of the rest of us left too. We met up with 2 of the Swedes near their apartment, because we were going to go hang there for a while since we weren't ready to go home yet, but they had given their key to someone that went upstairs and fell asleep.. so they were locked out. We wandered around plaza españa for 30ish minutes and talked and ended up just leaving. I went home with Brittany to sleep in her guest bedroom so that we wouldn't have to walk alone that late. We stayed up for a while and ate chips and guac until we passed out. It was a fun night, but a little disappointing. Swedish people are awesome.

Sunday:
I woke up late at Brittany's then we talked for hours about travel plans. Also, during the afternoon, Brent and I talked and decided we didn't want to be together at the moment, because we both have some things we need to figure out. I can't wait to spend some time with him this summer to see how things are going to work out. I pretty much slept the entire day since I was physically and emotionally exhausted.

Monday:
School! 4 classes.. lots of hours.. blah. I decided I'm dropping one of my classes, because it is extremely uninteresting and I don't need the hours for my major nor to graduate. So now my work load is even lighter.. yay? I'm still trying to find a family here that needs a student to help their kids learn English.. I need activities to keep me busy. I went to Hannah's after our grammar class to find places to stay during Semana Santa. We e-mailed tons of places, so hopefully at least one will work out for us. I saw a man riding a bike with a basket attached to it with a cat that looked like Astra laying in the basket on a pillow. I laughed out loud on the street corner.. pretty sure no one else thought it was funny. The metro stopped working for a few minutes today which freaked me out. The electricity went out so it was pitch black for a few minutes.. weird. I'm kinda paranoid of taking it now. I don't want to get stuck in a tunnel. I talked to Brent on Skype for a long time Monday night and found out his favorite cat passed away. :( He was pretty much the best cat ever, and I am very sad that he is gone.

Tuesday (today! .. fially caught up)
Only one class today.. slept in and ate breakfast at 12:30pm. That is my kind of life. It's also, 2-22!! So that means something good has to happen today, right? I'm still waiting... I think today is the funeral for my grandma's brother. :( He passed away recently, but I think it was for the best because he had been suffering for a while. My family is all in Tulsa right now, and I wish I could be there with them. Some of us girls are going to go walk around in a little bit, since it is soooo warm today! It is warm and super windy; it reminds me of Tulsa. On the metro on the way home today, a man got on the train, and it started moving before he could sit down so he fell on his face. It was really scary and sad. :( I think he already had a cut or something on his head, so it reopened and started dripping all over the floor. A few really nice young guys helped him get up off the floor and took care of him. It was really scary because it literally happened right in front of me, and I knew I couldn't do anything to help. It reminded me of the time in NYC last year when a guy had a seizure on the sidewalk in front of me. He was up and walking off the metro with help from his wife and one of the men who helped him, so I guess that was a good sign.

I've had a billion emotions in the past few days!! I am sorting out my life, or at least trying to. I am enjoying really thinking about everything in my life and figuring it out.. and the beach helps too. :) I still can't believe I'm living on a gorgeous island in Spain! I miss everyone at home so much.
Time to go walk around and perhaps down to the beach.. ;) I never thought I would be so in love with the beach, but I am. I want to go to it every day, because it is incredibly relaxing and beautiful.

Hasta luego,
Lynne

*edit*: Just got back from walking around with Hannah and Chelsea. We went to H&M for the 21309234 time, but none of us bought anything. Then I got some ensaimada flavored gelato.. can you say delicious?! It was amazing. I love just walking around, especially when the weather is absolutely perfect. Seriously, today was my favorite weather ever. Anyway, Hannah and I were walking home and saw this guy ducking and hiding behind cars and he kept looking past us like he was running away from someone. He ran down a street to our left very quickly. We didn't really think anything of it until 2 security guards went running by us a few minutes later. I had no idea how to say "that way" in Spanish (I know, it seems so easy, but the random simple things are what I am missing) and they were pretty far from us once I realized they were probably looking for that guy. So they ran off and Hannah and I approached the entrance to my apartment building and were standing out there talking when we heard someone whistle to get the guards' attention. So then they went running past us, and some handcuffs fell off of one of them so he was freaking out. By that point, a large group of people were just standing and observing, because no one knew what was going on. One of them ran down that street (the same street we saw the guy go down) and the other one ran past us again (with some random girl chasing him and laughing???) and down another street. We waited for a minute to see if anything else was going to happen, but nothing did. Someone yelled for someone to call the police and the girl that was chasing the cop was just standing there laughing. I have absolutely no idea what happened, but Hannah and I very much enjoyed watching it happen. Hahahaha. So that makes 2 random and weird things that happened today that I saw. Exciting stuff. Just ate some delicious broccoli, carrots, grilled chicken, and salad.. yummy. No class tomorrow, or as my host madre likes to say, "vacaciones!"