Dec 1st - Dec 8th

So, I was sitting here at home this evening trying to do problem sets for my Game Theory class and wasn’t getting anywhere with them so instead I decided to write this blog entry for everyone to enjoy. I mean who understands these darn economists and their Game Theory anyways! If you were wondering why this post did not go up until Wednesday, yes, the latest I have put one up I do believe since I began, there is good reason. This past weekend in Madrid was fin de semana de Constitucion, or something along those lines. It is the weekend they celebrate the new constitution being made, I am assuming after Franco lost power. The weekend could not have come at a better time. Things are crazy at school, well I guess not as crazy as back home, with everyone having finals, but here we have everything due before school goes for winter break, then we come back in January and sit our exams. I spent the weekend mostly relaxing, well, and having some fun also!

Apart from that, not much else happened at the end of last week, we are jamming through class material in my Macro Econ class, because in typical Spanish fashion we took way too much time on the first part of the material and now we are trying to play catch up at the very end. The goal is to finish some 8 class meetings in 3 and last class we did not even make it through one of the presentations…I am just making a wild guess, NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! Luckily the second half of the material has been much easier for me as my Spanish is improving, and if we had spent less time on the original material I might not have understood it so well. Once again, darn economists and their Theories!

Well Friday was the first day of the long weekend. I got some studying done in the afternoon and was planning on having a quiet night at home because Saturday night Marc, Ismael, Javier and friends were all planning to go out;  but as usual one of my friends called, twisted my arm ever so slightly and BAM going out it was! We went to a Disco right around the corner from my house called Kapital. It is one of the most famous and well known ones here in Madrid, and I had been meaning to go to it but I usually go out on the other end of town because my friends from here live on the other side. Needless to say it is well known for a reason; the place is huge and Jams! It is a 7 story club that has different themes on each level. The first level when you go in is the main dance floor and plays heavy house / techno type music, takes some getting used to but fun to dance to and keeps things lively at all times. The second floor if I remember correctly was karaoke. The third was a Spanish dance floor, playing regaetone and other types of Spanish music, probably should have gone there more. But I guess it gives me a reason to go back! The fourth I think was some sort of oldies floor, the fifth was a hip/ R&B dance floor, the sixth was a Mojito lounge, and the sixth was an Arab style chill out type terrace. I hope that describes it all briefly. Well it was a blast and a good time was had by all.

On Saturday, I had a relaxing morning, worked on a little more homework, watched a soccer match, and read my book some. Later that night I met up with the guys and some of their friends from high school and went out again to go dancing. Tough Life, I know! We went to one of the places that we usually go to called Orange Café. It was a lot of fun as usual, and I got to meet some of their other friends who are always really nice. We called it a relatively early night, and I began my walk home, about 35 minutes or so from that edge of town, but nice and do-able. On the way home, I ended up running into some of my Dutch friends from school who had lost one of the people in their group, it was pretty funny running into them, and we ended up finding the other guy just up the street a few hundred yards. I hung with them for a little while, and then the group broke into smaller sections and I cruised on home with some of the guys from Germany and Holland. Such a big city, but I always seem to be running into other exchange students from my school which is funny.

On Sunday, I knocked out a bit more homework, and then headed over to Marc’s house to hangout. Another friend of ours Joaquin came over and we all had Chinese for dinner. I believe that was the only time I had eaten Chinese since I have been here, but that’s completely off topic! We did not do much but relax, and watch a movie, nice to have some down time and just hang out and not do anything. I stayed the night, and the next day was more of the same. It was a rainy and cold weekend here in Madrid, so it was only logical to stay in and catch up on rest and relaxation. I probably should have done some more for this business plan that I have been working on with the first year students, but just hanging out seemed like the better idea. Our buddy Javier, ended up coming over night to hang out, and apparently he needed to make one more model of a mouth because he is in dental school and it the models are due on Wednesday, so guess what, yours truly sat in the kitchen at Marc’s house and had to deal with those nasty molds. Not one of the things I really enjoy, but what are friends for. I was going head back to Madrid Monday night but we ended up going to see a movie, Spanish Movie, as in a spinoff of the Scary Movie series in the U.S. but based on Spanish movies, and it ended around 1:30a.m. and by that time the buses do not run from Marc’s house to Madrid. This morning, Tuesday, I got up relatively early, well around 11:30 or so and headed home. I knocked out the rest of the Business Plan this afternoon, and headed over to a little coffee shop near my house to have a café con leche, send a few emails, and watch Andrew Live on CHSTV. Unfortunately, there was some sort of problem with the Live feed so I was not able to catch it, but do not think I am not going to watch that replay first thing tomorrow when I get to school and my teacher is blabbering in the front of the class room! I was able to speak with Dad for a bit, it was nice to catch up, as usual, went fishing this weekend with the guys; Mom seems to be crazy busy with school, and John is getting through his finals. Sounds like everyone is doing well back home which is really good.

Well I guess I have put enough down for one sitting, I know some of you out there whine cause I can go on for pages! I hope you all enjoyed reading, and I did not bore you. I wanted to just say Good Luck to everyone that has Finals coming up, and a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to my dear friend Lizzy who will be graduating.

Much Love Always,

Phil