Spain gets weirder (and a bit more familiar)....

If it seems I write in this less and less, it´s because I have recently taken up a real schedule (meaning more than two ridiculously easy classes). I´m now enrolled in 5, all in Spanish, 3 at la Autónoma where the Spanish kids (and a freakin lot of Germans and other Europeans) go.

On Friday evening I went to an anti-fascist counterdemonstration, except the 'anti' and 'counter' part of it never materialized so I watched the very disturbing La Falange (an ultra-right wing group in Spain and I think other countries in Europe) march under police escort to a nearby plaza. These dudes are like, I don´t know, one hoodie removal from donning their full-on neo-Nazi gear. Their uniformity of marching, their excessive flag-bearing, and their unabashed racism ('No to Islam in Europe' and 'No to Immigration' were a couple favorite banners) are scary. One guy - probably a couple years younger than me - flashed a quick Heil Hitler salute as his friend snapped a photo with the camera phone. America is pretty fucked up politically right now, but rarely will you see a group like that parading up a city street (on a semi-regular basis).

We´ve been continuing the same-old same-old barhopping/discoteca routine on the weekends, which is fun, but not much more than that. It´s not thrilling and it´s definitely not really 'Spanish,' even though I find it easier to interact with (and speak to) los townies while drunk (as does everyone else). I´m probably just being cynical again, but the Americans in our program are annoying me more and more, maybe because I´ve been spending more time at Autonoma, or because we can´t seem to shake em when we go out (and people have a tendency to frequent the same cheesy, mainstream, humdrum places in the same goddamn neighborhood.) Irish pubs are great and all, for a while, but in Ireland, not Madrid.

But, to end on a positive note, um, hmm what can I say, life ain´t so bad, I found a job teaching English to a 3 and 4 year old (which I´m not qualified to do) 2 hours a week, the other American students are kind of annoying or at least unadventurous but except for a few are good people. For lack of a better idea (I think my English skills have deteriorated since coming here), I leave with an interesting quote I saw on the wall of a sangria bar near Puerta del Sol: ''Music! Like a naked woman, running crazy through the pure night.'' FIN!

¡Comenta, putos!

I changed the settings to allow anyone to comment, thus allowing, um, nobody to now indulge themselves in sharing their hopes, fears, and general opinions, with respect to the pointless things I write here.

Please...?

Columbia has way too much money to burn

It was not a bad time in Madrid this past weekend. The weather was mild (cold at night as always, but not New York cold), and despite the fact that a lot of my friends went to Cadiz in the south of Spain for Carnaval (even though Carnaval ended on Wednesday but don´t count on travel agencies who make their money from less-than-bright Syracuse sorority girls to tell you that), we had fun. Thursday night kind of went downhill after a bouncer wouldn´t let me into a club because he found the water bottle of vodka I was keeping in my pocket. (For the record lots of people, at least the Americans, do that - it´s not sketchy, it´s efficient!) But props to my roommate for leaving in solidarity. Later in the weekend we spent most of the night at a salsa club, where we made poor attempts to actually dance salsa, and oh yeah, a skyscraper near by apartment burned down in the largest fire Madrid has seen.

We were paid a surprise visit by Dean McDermott, who runs Columbia´s study abroad program, after some kids here complained about having to take classes at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (which is, I don´t know, far or something. And kids smoke and drink in the middle of the day there. I don´t know what their beef is.) In typical excessive Columbia fashion, they flew her over here to, I don´t know, ´´observe´´ or whatever. By the way, everyone who pays tuition there, thanks for the $800 dinner at La Rioja hehehe.

Another mildly interesting cultural observation: there isn´t much privacy in Madrid, especially for young people who tend to live at home until they´re like 30, which affects behavior in the street. I´ve never seen so much PDA and public drinking (though never at the same time). Making out on the Metro is practically a national pasttime. I don´t know about you, but nothing gets me hotter than thinking about all those color-coded Metro lines intersecting. Mmmmm....

Las Aventuras de Chulo y Jefe

I looked at a map of the U.S.A. the other day and for the first time it seemed vaguely foreign. Like the geographic borders, the names of states, had an unfamiliarity that was unusal to me, faintly akin to waking up in mid-afternoon and being spatially and temporally disoriented.

Maybe it´s because I´ve been looking at too damn many maps of Europe lately, trying to plan spring break, or La Semana Santa as it´s called here. (It coincides with Easter). I finally settled on Rome for a few days and then Paris for some more, and - praise be to Russell - I get to stay at his place in the whatever number Arrondissement or whatever the hell it is which is supposed to be a nice place. In Rome I want to rent a Vespa for an hour, drive it clumsily, and not die. In Paris I want to find a guide who can give us a private (illegal) tour of the medieval catacombs under the city. (Read about it somewhere at www.infiltration.com.) Among other things of course.

I tossed around the idea of taking a 48-hour bus ride to Romania for only 100 euros which is cheap considering the distance. I am spending too much money on this break. I need a damn job.

And once I realized that a bus and ferry to Morocco - as in, like, Africa - is only about 100 euros also (like, $130) I decided I definitely want to go there. The country is ridiculously cheap, well just ridiculous in general, and Morocco is the kind of place that provides adventure and exoticism which is what world travel should be about. Also, cheap carpets. And damn if I see a snake charmer I´m giving it my money.

So peanut butter and jelly is, to Spaniards, an exotic ethnic food. They don´t eat it here. My roommate Evan and I bought some (6 freakin dollars for a small jar) and the kids, for the first time in their lives tried it. It´s called Crema de Cacahuete or something like that here, btw. Mmmmmmm......You can´t get any blander, more mainstream, and more universal than PB&J but in Spain it´s a novelty.

I don´t know how the car bombing was received in the US but the strangest part of the whole affair here was the apparent indifference of everyone to it. I didn´t even hear about it until I read the news like 4 hours after it happened, and that was after spending several hours at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and on the Metro. There was no mass panic, so police lockdown, no shared apocalyptic feelings of doom. ETA (the group responsible) has, I was told, been bombing Madrid on and off for 30 or 40 years and I guess after a few dozen it´s not shocking anymore. Even when it happens in your own city. Is that resilience or cold indifference?

Why is Ireland so rich?

I booked a flight to Dublin for like $60 roundtrip for the first weekend in March. Yay. That´s all.