Saturday & Sunday

Saturday:
Yesterday was definitely the most exciting day of my week! I feel like all I look forward to here is going out on the weekends. I went to see a movie called "Biutiful" with Chelsea and Andrea in the late afternoon. It was rainy and quite ugly outside, and therefore a perfect day to go to the movies. When we handed our tickets to the ticket-taker man, he asked us if we knew the film was in Spanish. We giggled and told him yes, we are students and know Spanish pretty well. People are always nicer once we tell them we are students here from the U.S. The film was was quite sad and depressing except for one scene in a bar which I can't really describe here.. it was one of the most ridiculous scenes I have ever seen, and it was quite hilarious. It is about a poor man (Javier Bardem) with cancer and his relationship with his children and other people in Barcelona. It definitely showed poverty quite well. It takes place in Barcelona, so it was cool to see and recognize some of the sites since I was just there last week. The cinematography and some of the random shots of Barcelona were definitely my favorite parts of the movie.
After the movie, I went home, ate, rested, and made plans to go out. I went with Drew, Kendra, Liz, Amit, and Sonia (new person! she is Kendra's friend from her swim team who is an Olympic swimmer from Poland/Canada.) to Paseo! Since it was raining, it was dead. There was less than half the normal amount of people. We went to a discoteca called Tito's, because Kendra got a ticket for free entrance for us (it normally costs 10-20 euros to get in) from one of the random people that always bug us on the street. Drew and Liz warned us that is was pretty lame, but we wanted to see for ourselves. We took an elevator (which had a great view of the port) up the disco, and there was a fashion show going on, featuring horribly ugly clothes and terrible models. That was interesting. We hung out for a while on the balcony just watching people dance below us (which was really funny), and then the "strippers" (they were really dancers wearing very little clothes, but they didn't strip. we just kept calling them strippers.) went on the stage and started dancing. That was soooo hilarious. There were two shirtless guys with amazing upper bodies and sparkly belt buckles, two anorexic-looking girls in very sparkly leotards, a manly-looking woman in a corset with her butt cheeks showing, and the weirdest one, a woman wearing sparkly underwear, tassel pasties, and holding a giant pink feather cape. This was the most awkward thing I have ever seen in my life. They all were dancing like you would if you were standing in a group of people, all spread out on the stage. One of the guys I could not stop staring at.. no, not due to him being sexy, but his incredible talent for being awkward. He was definitely gay and a really bad dancer, using some country/western dance moves while wearing sunglasses as well. The girl with the pink feather cape was basically dancing a strip tease without stripping, which just made her look even more awkward too. We watched them for 2-3 songs, because it was impossible not to watch them. There were a lot of older people there, even a couple that appeared to be late 50's, which also made Tito's kind of weird. I don't think I will ever go back there, but it was definitely interesting to see once. After that, we went to another bar for a while before deciding to head out to the 24/7 diner around 3am. I love that diner so much. Our friend the co-owner, Heather, was working (which was weird, since she said she never works the late night shift) and immediately was so friendly when we walked in. We settled down in a booth  after waiting a few minutes for some people to get up and watching an intense make-out session at another table. I ordered a sandwich with bacon, cheese, and tomato.. and it was incredible. None of us left any food on our plates. That diner is quickly becoming one of my favorite places here. We headed out to the street to catch a cab around 4:30am. We parted ways in Plaza España (about a 10 minute walk from my home). I saw something quite interesting on my walk home. Usually I spend the night at someone's house so I don't have to walk home, but the girl I usually stay with wasn't in town yesterday. Anyway, I have noticed sometimes when I walk home around midnight (which is waaaaaay early here) after tapas, there have been some sketch-looking women on the street corners on the way home about a block from where I live. I noticed this one lady who looked to be about 25 wearing one of the most hideous outfits I have ever seen in my life (a plaid skirt with black tulle underneath, super high 5" heeled boots, and some weird home-made looking shirt, with horribly greasy hair and raccoon-eye makeup) standing on the corner, and as I was walking past her, a car with a 60ish year old man driver pulled into the street next to the corner and she walked over and got in the car. I was pretty disgusted upon seeing this and immediately thought of how much I hate the porn/sex industry. It is so sad that people choose to earn money that way and that other people actually pay them. Anyway, I had a lot of fun even though it was kind of a bust due to the Spaniards' fear of rain.

Sunday:
I slept a lot today.. meaning, I ate breakfast at 3:00pm. I didn't even drink that much last night nor did I stay our incredibly late. Oh well, I guess I needed it. It is a gorgeous day outside, so I have my window open. I might take a walk later too. My mom and aunt Karen will be here on Saturday!! I can't stop thinking about how excited I am to see them. Drew and Liz gave me some tips on some restaurants to go to and things to do with them, since both of their parents have visited. I have a bit of homework to do today (which will probably take about an hour.. I love homework here) and that's about it. My host madre's brother and sister-in-law iare out of town, and their dog is staying with us. It is one of the ugliest/cutest dogs I have ever seen. I think it is a Yorkie, but it is soooo tiny. It reminds me of our "Ratdog", but it actually looks like a rat. I think it weighs about 2 lbs., it is really old, and has the weakest bark ever. I think it is scared of me, because it keeps walking up to me and running away. It is so hilarious.. I will try to take a picture of it. I have a feeling this week will be pretty uneventful, and the highlight of the week will be my mom and aunt arriving!