As some of you may just have learned from my last post, or have already heard, I spent the last four days in Prague with mom, Tia Nicha and Tio Quim. We arrived late in the afternoon after and went straight to the hotel, Hotel Josef, to check in and start exploring. The hotel was really a great place, and old typical Czech building that had been completely redone inside recently with a modern feel…It was a cool balance of old and new. We dropped our bags of and it was straight to the city, it took me a little bit to get oriented but before long I found my bearings on the map we had and we were tearing through town seeing the things we wanted to check out. Just as we arrived at the Old Town Square for the first time, it was the top of the hour and the astrological clock did its little sing and dance…There is a clock that I cannot even start to explain, it shows something like the hour of sunrise, the hour of sunset, the astrological signs, the 24 hour clock, and the days of the year all at once! See pictures on my web album to believe! After that we wandered around the Christmas markets that were still open and drank Mull wine, which is a warm wine drink and ate some typical Czech cinnamon pastry thing that they cooked over coals. Later that evening we went to a restaurant off the beaten path that was recommended in mom’s guide book. We ended up having a great meal of Pork stuffed with, I forget what, potatoes and Sauerkraut if I remember correctly; and to wrap things up we split some berry pie for desert. Whoops, how could I forget the world famous pilsner that we drank there. It was the first time I had had this mystical pilsner I had read about, and it was indeed tasty. After a brisk, below freezing walk balk to the hotel it was off too bed. I know, I let myself down by not going out to the disco in Prague, but I would have been a one man show and by the time we were done with dinner I was exhausted…WHIMP, I accept the label!
The plan for the next morning was to take a bus tour to get to see a general overview of the city for a couple hours and then set off to more specific places later on. I am not usually a big fan of those big touristy bus tours, but it was something Tio Quim really wanted to do so we gave it a shot. Almost forgot to mention the killer spread the hotel put pout for breakfast, anything you could imagine, a wonderful cheese spread, fresh fruit, eggs, potatoes, prosciutto, Lochs (salmon) , fresh bread, anything you could ever want for breakfast; I wish I would have taken a picture of it. We booked the bus trip and it was off to see the city during the day. We ended up taking the bus all over, and looking back, I think it was one of the best things that we did; it gave us a great overview of the city and took us to see things that we would not have seen otherwise. After the bus ride, we decided to head up to the royal caste and toured the grounds. Before making it, we ended up stopping in at a church that was about to have an organ concert so we ended up staying and enjoying some Czech organ playing before making the rest of the trek to the castle. The castle was pretty cool, the Czech President or ruler has ruled form the same exact place for, I don’t remember the exact number but I think it was something like 2 or 3 centuries. The architecture was quite different (please enjoy the photos again), and the grounds had spectacular views of the city below. We ended up buying concert tickets for the Royal Orchestra and headed back down to the city for dinner. We ate at a local brewery and had some more great food. We ate dumplings, potato soup, pork, roast duck and this time enjoyed some darker ale with the meal. Afterwards, we headed back up to the castle and watched Orchestra play in one of the oldest churches on the castle grounds. This may have been one of the coldest moments of my life, the church was probably a brisk -3 or 4 Celsius, we were sitting on old wood benches, and the whole place was stone…no wonder the other signs for concert said HEATED, ok so I did not notice that until afterwards and I was thoroughly pissed that we froze while listening for an hour and change. Whoops, we actually went to the concert and then to dinner, I had that switched around but so be it.
On Monday, we spent the whole day touring the Jewish Quarter of Prague. I did not know that there was a big Jewish population in Prague, but there must have been six or seven synagogues within a square mile of each other. After going through the first couple we stopped off at Franz Kafka Café. I do not know exactly who he was, or cannot remember, but he was some really important guy because there are things all over the city named after him. After finishing up with all of the synagogues it was back to the hotel to rest for a few minutes then some aimless wandering through the city until we went for dinner…why does food always seem to be one of the highlights of trips…it is always fun to try all of the different types of foods. Again, we ended up in another pub/bar called something that translated to the rope makers wife…we ate another meal of pork and potatoes, these people must get sick of it after three days or so, at least I was ALMOST starting too, key word being ALMOST! There was a funny story about the rope makers wife, and how her husband would go on long trips and she was lonely so she started a bar, then one thing led to another, it was full of guys and they were served more than just dinner…astonished after hearing about this, the rope maker came home from one of his trips and strangled her with a rope he made…her ghost has since been in the bar. There was a really interesting wood carved lady in the restaurant, which you would need to see pictures to do justice, for everyone to enjoy.
On our last day in Prague it was back up to the royal palace to see the Cathedral that we missed out on the first time because it was closed. It was absolutely breathe taking, and took some 6 hundred years to complete because of war, communist ruling, and who knows what else…possibly the brutally cold winters they have. (On a complete side note I think I failed to mention that it snowed every single day that we were in Prague, except the last day where the weather cleared up and we had some sun but also the coldest day out of all of them) After visiting the cathedral we wandered up to monastery and took a look around. We went to some super old Library that had all these collections of dried up animals from all over the world; it was pretty cool to see. Unfortunately, the main hall of the library was under restoration and of course they did not tell you that when you paid for your entrance, so that was kind of a bummer, but I guess they would not have money to complete the project if no one paid to go see it! After being through there it was lunch time, we went to one of the oldest breweries in Prague that was up on top of the hill near the monastery had had probably the best meal of the trip. For starters we had venison pâté and pickled sausages…neither of which I was extremely crazy about, but I had to try them both to see what they were all about. Along with the meal, we enjoyed some Pilsner that was brewed at the restaurant. For the main course we shared a goose dish, a rabbit dish, and pork on a skewer; all of which were excellent. I am not sure that I had ever eaten goose before, atleast not that I could remember but it was very good, and it had been a long while since the last time I had eaten rabbit. Oh man I almost forgot, on the second day we were there, we were at the Christmas market cruising around and there was a stand selling different smoked meats and sausages. On the board of what they had it said horse, so I asked the girl to point out which the horse was and it was a sausage that they had made from horse…she offered me a piece and it was not too bad either, didn’t taste much different than a regular sausage, it was kind of spicy with paprika or something, interesting I guess. Ok, back to the monastery…after lunch we took in the views of the city from above and then leisurely made our way back down to the hotel and relaxed and packed things up for a little before going to dinner later. We had a light dinner at a kosher restaurant in the Jewish Quarter, and then did a small little lap around Old Town Square again before calling it a trip and heading back to the hotel to mentally prepare for waking up at 3:30 a.m. to catch our 6:00 flight…WHO BOOKS A 6:00 a.m. flight!!! Waking up was a little rough, but it was nice to be back in Lisbon by mid-day. Last night some of the cousins got together for a dinner send off for Martin who lives in Italy. All in all it was an awesome trip and now it is time to try to buckle down and start studying for my exams that start next Wednesday!
Hope everyone is well back home and that classes are going well if you have them.
Much Love Always,
Phil
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Dec 15th - Dec 29th Con't, actually thru Jan 1st
You ever have that thing you are trying to get done but never seem to get around to because any excuse you can find is a good one? That's almost how it has been with these posts over the holidays for me but I am getting through them slowly but surely, usually after being hassled by friends! Get your game face on and hold on to your seats, this is a big one!
Well, here we go, the arrival to Portugal. Did I already tell you about the arrival after the horrid flight, well if not here is a really quick overview. When we arrived it was pouring rain, my bags came off the plane wet because we did not pull up to a gate, but left the plane on stairs on the tarmac. At that point I was just happy to be home, or in Portugal.
The next few days were pretty mellow, lots of relaxing, and lots of errands to get done. Tia Nicha, my aunt, really has been helping me out a ton since I came...I have been trying to get this European health card so I have health coverage while living here and it has been an absolute pain in the neck. Tia Nicha and I have been all over, and talked to countless people about what needs to be done to finally get the darn thing. It seems like after a day and half of that we are on the right track, but who knows! Apart from the health card I also got a cell phone so I could speak easily with family, and mostly call for help if I was lost or ad any troubles in my grandma's car. Have you ever wandered around semi-aimlessly trying to find your way somewhere, that seems to be me about half the time when I am driving around Lisbon, there are so many places that I have never been too or driven around so I am usually half lost. Luckily, I have been able to do some loops and always end up home on my own...well almost always, that story to come. The lead up to Christmas was very strange for me this year, it was hard to get into that Christmas spirit. Typically you always have those same faces around you during the holidays, and when you don't have them it is really strange. Although I was with my family here in Portugal, Christmas is not the same without my family back home, well and my friends too of course, I can't believe I missed the Christmas play at Kyle's, and the gift exchange at Lizzy's for Nana's cookies(well, actually I think they took my life size cut out to the Christmas play so I guess I was there)!
Christmas eve was a slow morning, got up and didn't do too much. I hung around the house and helped my grandma make a fish dish to take over to my uncles house for dinner and watched some movies on my laptop. Dinner was good, we had the typical Bacalhau (dry salted cod fish that you rehydrate to eat) dish with potatoes, carrots and cabbage, some nice wine and of course great company. On Christmas eve it just was Tio Joao, Avo, Tio Ita, Tia Po, Domingos, Francisco and me.
Christmas day was more of the same, relaxing all morning (well, I think I woke up a bit after noon so not really the morning), helping Avo cook a Fish/clam chowder that she makes for Christmas dinner, and then it was off to Tia Nicha's house for Christmas dinner with ALL of the family, there must have been 25+ people there, or at least it felt like it. The chowder is a hit with all of the cousins, it is pretty good and all but I was more excited about the Turkey because I didn't get m yearly fix of Turkey on Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun to see how everyone spent Christmas here, and as always it was nice to have all of the family together.
Christmas night is a big night for going out to discos in Lisbon but by the time rolled around to go out partying, I was completely wiped out and decided to stay in and call it a night, weak, yes I know! The 26th was a new day and there was no way that I was gonna pass up another night out on the town. I met up with Domingos, Francisco, Miguel Bruschy, and White Castle (Castello-Branco) for dinner and a night out. We went to a restaurant called Bota Velha (The Old Boot) and had some tasty grinds for ridiculously cheap prices. After that, we went for a Caipirinha at a local bar and it was off to the club. We went to the club that we usually go called Urban Beach and danced the night away. Well, after getting home at some ridiculous hour and then talking to friends for another hour or so I think I ended up going to sleep around 8a.m. or something which meant that the next day was a waste cause I slept for most of it. Oh yea, now I remember what I did, in the mid afternoon I went with Tia Nicha, Tio Quim, Teresa and David to see Sherlock Holmes, totally dug that movie, would definitely recommend watching it if you haven't already. Nearly forgot another thing, man putting this off was not a good idea, my cousins Marta and Mariana were staying at my grandma's house this weekend and on that Sunday night before they went back to their mom's, we all had dinner together and hung out.
The 28th was a big day, my MOM arrived for a visit!!! Spent most of the day at Tia Nicha and Tio Quim's hanging with the cousins waiting for the evening to roll around to go pick mom up from the airport. Her coming to visit was going to be a surprise for everyone, but we ended up telling everyone but Teresa, my cousin, her god daughter because she wanted it to be extra special for her because on the 29th she turned 18 and she did not know mo was going to be at the party. Her flight came in a few minutes late but nothing to major...we waited and waited and she never came out...Thank you Iberia Airlines for loosing her luggage in transit. Well, it is hard to say if Iberia lost it but, it was lost and it was not the best way to receive mom, very worried that the bag was stolen because all of the presents for the family over here were in it. By the time we got home it was around 10:00 p.m. we had a late dinner/snack and called it a night.
Due to Jet Lag, mom was up at some absurd hour, I think it was 6:30, and heaven forbid she miss any time with her son...next thing I knew I was up and at them at WAY TOO EARLY IN THE MORNING! The first part of the day I was trying to track down the luggage, I hate dealing with the airlines cause no one will take responsibility and they all give you a different answer for the same question. In the afternoon, before the big party we went over to Tia Nicha's and surprised Teresa...I think she was pretty surprised, maybe she had a little idea but anyhow she was extremely excited. We all had lunch at the house and then it was off to buy mom clothes to wear at the party (tie and sports coat, and ladies in their fancy attire); while the girls went shopping I hung around the house with David and then headed back to Avo's with mom when she returned to get ready. After getting ready I headed over to Domingo's house and a bunch of the cousins went to a friend Miguel's for dinner. Met back up with mom and the rest of the family at the party. When I got there, there were tons of kids hanging around but no one really shaking tail so I immediately jumped out onto the dance floor and started dancing by myself, probably making a fool out of myself but hey, someone had t get this party off the ground. Before long the dance floor was grooving and everyone was having a great time. We rocked the house till about 4 a.m. mom and I stayed around to help clean up at the end and then it was off to get home. We had to drop a cousin of my cousin off at his house and by the time we were headed in our direction it was almost 4:30. You ever have one of those OH SHIT MOMENTS while driving (excuse the language)...we definitely had one of those on the way home; we were getting onto the freeway that we needed to go home and came to a fork in the road where we could either go left or right, right looked like it ducked onto a frontage road so I took the left side, before I could think at that hour I was seeing headlights coming at us...THE EXIT RAMP, yea you guessed it!!! Luckily at that hour there were only three or four cars visible in any direction, but man was that a scary instant, flipped a quick U ball and was home safe!
The 30th was a long morning, spent most of it battling with the airlines for the missing piece of luggage and of course nothing had shown up and it was lost in space somewhere. I am not exactly sure what we did that afternoon (I really need to keep on top of these entries otherwise they become scatter brained and are written and obscure hours like this one where I am not thinking straight, have you noticed yet? I think I am actually doing pretty well to tell you the truth, but ok back at it), but that night it was a night on the town with the guys. Martin, a cousin from Italy was in town for the new years and a bunch of the cousins all met up to have some fun. We ended up going to 80's and 90's music club that was totally packed. It was mostly the 30+ crowd, but the music was killer and we all jammed out and had a great time. At some point in the night when it was time to get going I was trying to round up the guys that I had driven in my car to go and couldn't find them or they were gonna walk because we were close to a couple of the guy's houses; by the time I got back to the other area where the other cousins were, they were gone. Of course, with my luck there was no signal in the club so I left. After, I left I got a message from Miguel who was the last one that I was missing saying he had gone home with a friend and that I was on my own. This is where we get back to that story about how I have never really gotten lost in Lisbon while driving...I couldn't have guessed where I was. To get there we took every back alley and one way street that I think there was in Lisbon and I knew I was not close to home. I ended up calling Miguel who gave me some directions and then I asked some taxi drivers until I found a main road that I recognized and was able to make it home.
The 31st was another relatively quiet day, in the afternoon again I battled with the airlines and was unsuccessful...what is that Airlines 3 - Philip 0, anyone that knows me knows how frustrated that makes me! Mom and I took Avo out to lunch up the avenue from the apartment for a great lunch, mom and Avo had grilled Swordfish, not the one we know back home but also excellent, and I had Pernil (which is like a pork shank). Darn was it a great meal, and it was nice to finally have some time just the three of us relaxing. In the afternoon mom and I went over to Tia Nicha's and hung out with the kids and Tia Nicha before a big family dinner at her house. We had about 8 or 10 of us over to Tia Nicha and Tio Quim's house for New Years Eve. I was supposed to go out with the cousins for dinner but it was hard to leave mom there and bail so I stayed and enjoyed a great meal of Duck rice. After dinner, I kid napped David, and took him out to celebrate the New Years with some of the older cousins. We went down the the Rio Tejo, and watched the fireworks...it was really funny because we were meeting the other cousins down there, and we ended up running into them as we were trying to get there...we all ended up making it to the big gathering point just as they were starting to count down from 10 and brought in the New Year by Spraying Champagne everywhere (not me this time!!!) and then each enjoying a few sips when we were done playing! After the party at the river it was off to find a Disco to party at for the rest of the night. No need to take David home, he might be 15 but passes for a 23 year old no problem! We got To Urban Beach, our typical place and were bared entry because it was guest list only that night. Luckily, Domingos had a friend or two that worked in there and we were able to get in after not too much hassle. Typical night out, dancing our tails off till some absurd hour, I probably would have stayed later but I had to be responsible and get David home at a decent hour...Ok so maybe that didn't work out to plan but I made an honest effort. At one point I told him hey, we are going to leave no later that 4:30 a.m. I am not going to get you home later than that...4:30 rolled around and there was some killer jam on an we couldn't stop dancing; next thing you know it was 4:45, again, I told him hey no later that 5:00. what do you know, 5:00 rolls around and we couldn't stop dancing...does the Dj throw down the best songs at the top of the hour??? At 6:00 in the morning I ended up pulling the plug and we got out of there. By the time had dropped him off at home and made it back to Avo's it was almost 7:00.
For some reason, I decided to check on the baggage and what do you know it was delivered the morning of the 1st, and was a huge relief for mom. Not a bad way to start off the new year huh! I think I ended up getting two hours of sleep and then it was on to the next thing. On the 1st mom and I did a mini road trip around Portugal to see family before they went back to other parts. First we drove about an hour and 45 to see my mom's nanny, Felicia. She was thrilled to see us, and her niece treated us to some lunch on arrival. We enjoyed some Portuguese Chorizo roasted on wood coals and fresh bread. It was nice to catch up with them, but before you knew it we were off to the next place. The next stop was to mom's first cousins Kikita's new house where all of here siblings were for the new year. As some of you may remember, I spent a fabulous weekend in Alicante sailing and enjoying time with family in early November; this was at Tia Nana and Tio Mana's house, and Tia Nana is Kikita's sister. Ok, so I am not going to give you the whole family tree and the name of everyone there, but it was great to see all of them and especially nice to see Tia Nana, Tio Mana, Bernardo, and Carolina before they headed back the next day to Spain. After chatting and having some tea, it was back on the road to Lisbon. we ended up getting home around 10:00 p.m. and it was straight to packing our bags...We are In Prague!!! I don't think I mentioned this yet on my blog but on the 2nd in the morning we left with Tia Nicha and Tio Quim for 4 days in Prague...Well I am not gonna add more to this monster of a post. I hope as always things are well back home, and that everyone will enjoy a great new year, 2010.
Much Love Always, and yes the Prague pictures are already up, and the post will come
Phil
Well, here we go, the arrival to Portugal. Did I already tell you about the arrival after the horrid flight, well if not here is a really quick overview. When we arrived it was pouring rain, my bags came off the plane wet because we did not pull up to a gate, but left the plane on stairs on the tarmac. At that point I was just happy to be home, or in Portugal.
The next few days were pretty mellow, lots of relaxing, and lots of errands to get done. Tia Nicha, my aunt, really has been helping me out a ton since I came...I have been trying to get this European health card so I have health coverage while living here and it has been an absolute pain in the neck. Tia Nicha and I have been all over, and talked to countless people about what needs to be done to finally get the darn thing. It seems like after a day and half of that we are on the right track, but who knows! Apart from the health card I also got a cell phone so I could speak easily with family, and mostly call for help if I was lost or ad any troubles in my grandma's car. Have you ever wandered around semi-aimlessly trying to find your way somewhere, that seems to be me about half the time when I am driving around Lisbon, there are so many places that I have never been too or driven around so I am usually half lost. Luckily, I have been able to do some loops and always end up home on my own...well almost always, that story to come. The lead up to Christmas was very strange for me this year, it was hard to get into that Christmas spirit. Typically you always have those same faces around you during the holidays, and when you don't have them it is really strange. Although I was with my family here in Portugal, Christmas is not the same without my family back home, well and my friends too of course, I can't believe I missed the Christmas play at Kyle's, and the gift exchange at Lizzy's for Nana's cookies(well, actually I think they took my life size cut out to the Christmas play so I guess I was there)!
Christmas eve was a slow morning, got up and didn't do too much. I hung around the house and helped my grandma make a fish dish to take over to my uncles house for dinner and watched some movies on my laptop. Dinner was good, we had the typical Bacalhau (dry salted cod fish that you rehydrate to eat) dish with potatoes, carrots and cabbage, some nice wine and of course great company. On Christmas eve it just was Tio Joao, Avo, Tio Ita, Tia Po, Domingos, Francisco and me.
Christmas day was more of the same, relaxing all morning (well, I think I woke up a bit after noon so not really the morning), helping Avo cook a Fish/clam chowder that she makes for Christmas dinner, and then it was off to Tia Nicha's house for Christmas dinner with ALL of the family, there must have been 25+ people there, or at least it felt like it. The chowder is a hit with all of the cousins, it is pretty good and all but I was more excited about the Turkey because I didn't get m yearly fix of Turkey on Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun to see how everyone spent Christmas here, and as always it was nice to have all of the family together.
Christmas night is a big night for going out to discos in Lisbon but by the time rolled around to go out partying, I was completely wiped out and decided to stay in and call it a night, weak, yes I know! The 26th was a new day and there was no way that I was gonna pass up another night out on the town. I met up with Domingos, Francisco, Miguel Bruschy, and White Castle (Castello-Branco) for dinner and a night out. We went to a restaurant called Bota Velha (The Old Boot) and had some tasty grinds for ridiculously cheap prices. After that, we went for a Caipirinha at a local bar and it was off to the club. We went to the club that we usually go called Urban Beach and danced the night away. Well, after getting home at some ridiculous hour and then talking to friends for another hour or so I think I ended up going to sleep around 8a.m. or something which meant that the next day was a waste cause I slept for most of it. Oh yea, now I remember what I did, in the mid afternoon I went with Tia Nicha, Tio Quim, Teresa and David to see Sherlock Holmes, totally dug that movie, would definitely recommend watching it if you haven't already. Nearly forgot another thing, man putting this off was not a good idea, my cousins Marta and Mariana were staying at my grandma's house this weekend and on that Sunday night before they went back to their mom's, we all had dinner together and hung out.
The 28th was a big day, my MOM arrived for a visit!!! Spent most of the day at Tia Nicha and Tio Quim's hanging with the cousins waiting for the evening to roll around to go pick mom up from the airport. Her coming to visit was going to be a surprise for everyone, but we ended up telling everyone but Teresa, my cousin, her god daughter because she wanted it to be extra special for her because on the 29th she turned 18 and she did not know mo was going to be at the party. Her flight came in a few minutes late but nothing to major...we waited and waited and she never came out...Thank you Iberia Airlines for loosing her luggage in transit. Well, it is hard to say if Iberia lost it but, it was lost and it was not the best way to receive mom, very worried that the bag was stolen because all of the presents for the family over here were in it. By the time we got home it was around 10:00 p.m. we had a late dinner/snack and called it a night.
Due to Jet Lag, mom was up at some absurd hour, I think it was 6:30, and heaven forbid she miss any time with her son...next thing I knew I was up and at them at WAY TOO EARLY IN THE MORNING! The first part of the day I was trying to track down the luggage, I hate dealing with the airlines cause no one will take responsibility and they all give you a different answer for the same question. In the afternoon, before the big party we went over to Tia Nicha's and surprised Teresa...I think she was pretty surprised, maybe she had a little idea but anyhow she was extremely excited. We all had lunch at the house and then it was off to buy mom clothes to wear at the party (tie and sports coat, and ladies in their fancy attire); while the girls went shopping I hung around the house with David and then headed back to Avo's with mom when she returned to get ready. After getting ready I headed over to Domingo's house and a bunch of the cousins went to a friend Miguel's for dinner. Met back up with mom and the rest of the family at the party. When I got there, there were tons of kids hanging around but no one really shaking tail so I immediately jumped out onto the dance floor and started dancing by myself, probably making a fool out of myself but hey, someone had t get this party off the ground. Before long the dance floor was grooving and everyone was having a great time. We rocked the house till about 4 a.m. mom and I stayed around to help clean up at the end and then it was off to get home. We had to drop a cousin of my cousin off at his house and by the time we were headed in our direction it was almost 4:30. You ever have one of those OH SHIT MOMENTS while driving (excuse the language)...we definitely had one of those on the way home; we were getting onto the freeway that we needed to go home and came to a fork in the road where we could either go left or right, right looked like it ducked onto a frontage road so I took the left side, before I could think at that hour I was seeing headlights coming at us...THE EXIT RAMP, yea you guessed it!!! Luckily at that hour there were only three or four cars visible in any direction, but man was that a scary instant, flipped a quick U ball and was home safe!
The 30th was a long morning, spent most of it battling with the airlines for the missing piece of luggage and of course nothing had shown up and it was lost in space somewhere. I am not exactly sure what we did that afternoon (I really need to keep on top of these entries otherwise they become scatter brained and are written and obscure hours like this one where I am not thinking straight, have you noticed yet? I think I am actually doing pretty well to tell you the truth, but ok back at it), but that night it was a night on the town with the guys. Martin, a cousin from Italy was in town for the new years and a bunch of the cousins all met up to have some fun. We ended up going to 80's and 90's music club that was totally packed. It was mostly the 30+ crowd, but the music was killer and we all jammed out and had a great time. At some point in the night when it was time to get going I was trying to round up the guys that I had driven in my car to go and couldn't find them or they were gonna walk because we were close to a couple of the guy's houses; by the time I got back to the other area where the other cousins were, they were gone. Of course, with my luck there was no signal in the club so I left. After, I left I got a message from Miguel who was the last one that I was missing saying he had gone home with a friend and that I was on my own. This is where we get back to that story about how I have never really gotten lost in Lisbon while driving...I couldn't have guessed where I was. To get there we took every back alley and one way street that I think there was in Lisbon and I knew I was not close to home. I ended up calling Miguel who gave me some directions and then I asked some taxi drivers until I found a main road that I recognized and was able to make it home.
The 31st was another relatively quiet day, in the afternoon again I battled with the airlines and was unsuccessful...what is that Airlines 3 - Philip 0, anyone that knows me knows how frustrated that makes me! Mom and I took Avo out to lunch up the avenue from the apartment for a great lunch, mom and Avo had grilled Swordfish, not the one we know back home but also excellent, and I had Pernil (which is like a pork shank). Darn was it a great meal, and it was nice to finally have some time just the three of us relaxing. In the afternoon mom and I went over to Tia Nicha's and hung out with the kids and Tia Nicha before a big family dinner at her house. We had about 8 or 10 of us over to Tia Nicha and Tio Quim's house for New Years Eve. I was supposed to go out with the cousins for dinner but it was hard to leave mom there and bail so I stayed and enjoyed a great meal of Duck rice. After dinner, I kid napped David, and took him out to celebrate the New Years with some of the older cousins. We went down the the Rio Tejo, and watched the fireworks...it was really funny because we were meeting the other cousins down there, and we ended up running into them as we were trying to get there...we all ended up making it to the big gathering point just as they were starting to count down from 10 and brought in the New Year by Spraying Champagne everywhere (not me this time!!!) and then each enjoying a few sips when we were done playing! After the party at the river it was off to find a Disco to party at for the rest of the night. No need to take David home, he might be 15 but passes for a 23 year old no problem! We got To Urban Beach, our typical place and were bared entry because it was guest list only that night. Luckily, Domingos had a friend or two that worked in there and we were able to get in after not too much hassle. Typical night out, dancing our tails off till some absurd hour, I probably would have stayed later but I had to be responsible and get David home at a decent hour...Ok so maybe that didn't work out to plan but I made an honest effort. At one point I told him hey, we are going to leave no later that 4:30 a.m. I am not going to get you home later than that...4:30 rolled around and there was some killer jam on an we couldn't stop dancing; next thing you know it was 4:45, again, I told him hey no later that 5:00. what do you know, 5:00 rolls around and we couldn't stop dancing...does the Dj throw down the best songs at the top of the hour??? At 6:00 in the morning I ended up pulling the plug and we got out of there. By the time had dropped him off at home and made it back to Avo's it was almost 7:00.
For some reason, I decided to check on the baggage and what do you know it was delivered the morning of the 1st, and was a huge relief for mom. Not a bad way to start off the new year huh! I think I ended up getting two hours of sleep and then it was on to the next thing. On the 1st mom and I did a mini road trip around Portugal to see family before they went back to other parts. First we drove about an hour and 45 to see my mom's nanny, Felicia. She was thrilled to see us, and her niece treated us to some lunch on arrival. We enjoyed some Portuguese Chorizo roasted on wood coals and fresh bread. It was nice to catch up with them, but before you knew it we were off to the next place. The next stop was to mom's first cousins Kikita's new house where all of here siblings were for the new year. As some of you may remember, I spent a fabulous weekend in Alicante sailing and enjoying time with family in early November; this was at Tia Nana and Tio Mana's house, and Tia Nana is Kikita's sister. Ok, so I am not going to give you the whole family tree and the name of everyone there, but it was great to see all of them and especially nice to see Tia Nana, Tio Mana, Bernardo, and Carolina before they headed back the next day to Spain. After chatting and having some tea, it was back on the road to Lisbon. we ended up getting home around 10:00 p.m. and it was straight to packing our bags...We are In Prague!!! I don't think I mentioned this yet on my blog but on the 2nd in the morning we left with Tia Nicha and Tio Quim for 4 days in Prague...Well I am not gonna add more to this monster of a post. I hope as always things are well back home, and that everyone will enjoy a great new year, 2010.
Much Love Always, and yes the Prague pictures are already up, and the post will come
Phil
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Dec 15th - Dec 29th
Ok, so here goes noting the TWO WEEK CHRISTMAS BLOG!!! Hopefully I can recollect all of the extraordinary events that have gone on over the past two weeks...BRACE YOURSELVES!
Where did we leave off, class I am guessing, The last week of classes was extremely slow, I only had two classes that met and for the most part we just reviewed and the teachers answered questions. The only class were we really did anything was in my Macro Economics class, as always we were behind on material, and the teacher raced through as much as he could in the last two days. Apparently, we will have another review before the test if we want to schedule one with him, so my friend Miguel from Portugal that is in the class is going to do that for the two of us. That was about all that happened at school the last week, once again not too interesting.
On Friday, which would have been about the 18th, Ryan Lathrum, a coordinator at the Business school back at ASU came to Madrid with his friend Stephen. We were put in touch by some by mutual contacts, and I offered to show the two of them around the city a little bit. We ended up having a great time together, Ryan lived in Madrid once upon a time but it was just very briefly and he was studying so he had forgotten some of the places but it was all coming back to him very quickly. We wandered around the city in the evening Friday night when they arrived, took in the night life during Christmas, enjoyed the beautiful lights all over the city, and then found are way into one of my favorite Tapa's bars for dinner. Needless to say, we had a superb meal of great Tapa's and some nice wine, and on top of the that they spoiled me and treated me to dinner.
The next day I had a slow morning, it was my second to last day in Madrid, and I was supposed to be packing to take one of my bags to Marc's house to store while I was in Portugal. I got absolutely nothing done in the morning, and left the house at about 1 in the afternoon to meet up with Ryan and Stephen again. We went to a few more places around the city, and again ended up at a different one of my favorite places for lunch, we all shared a few different sandwiches: Calamari, Chorizo, and Tortilla to be exact, and then continued on our trek. We finished the day off at the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art where Pablo Picasso's famous piece Guernica is kept. I had already visited the museum before, but it had been a few years, and it was cool to get a second look at some of the pieces, and enjoy the new ones also. That evening, I packed my whole life into two suitcases, and cleaned my room so I would be ready to move out, and go straight to the airport on Sunday. After packing, I lugged a huge duffel bag down to the train station and jumped on a train to get to Marc's house. I almost made it there, until we passed the station and I realized that I had caught the wrong train, ha ha ha; I felt like a complete and utter idiot, it was the first time that this had happened to me, and on top of that, I was meeting his whole family for dinner and kept them waiting for 45 minutes while I had to switch trains, wait for another one and then finally arrived! Thank goodness that they are really nice and dd not tear into me! We all went out for Chinese food a a restaurant near their house. No, not the same one that I tried the Tripe at thank goodness. After the meal I was planning on heading back to Madrid and calling it a night, but Ismael and Javier called and wanted to go out to a bar for a few drinks before I left town and it would have been rude of me to tell my best friends no so we went out on the town. It was a real lo key night, we stayed in Pozuelo which is a suburb of Madrid and went to a bar and ended up meeting up with a bunch of different friends that I had met since arriving. I ended up staying the night at Marc's and then waking up early in the morning and catching the bus back to Madrid. When I left his house at 10:30 in the morning, the thermometer read -10C, which is way too cold, damn was I glad to be leaving!
Sunday I arrived home, packed up the rest of my stuff into a backpack and was off to the Airport after saying good bye to the old guys I lived with for the last three months, Jose and Charles. I arrived at the airport just to find humongous lines of people traveling for Christmas, which I was not expecting but should have been. Luckily, I arrived with plenty of time and on top of that my flight was delayed an hour and a half. If Flight from Hell was a movie, I was on the set! A trip that is usually 4 hours from the time I leave my door to the time I arrive at my grandmas took me over 7. Once we all boarded the airplane the mayhem started. First off one of the ground crew members came one and said that there was one too many people on the plane so they started calling out names to see if they could figure it out, after about 20 minutes of flight attendants walking up and down the Isles, the figured out that it was a baby that had two boarding passes or some malarky of the such. To add insult to injury, without skipping a beat after the first messed had settled the captain made the dreaded move you never want to see, he came out of the cockpit to address all of the passengers. let me see if I can do tis justice (Insert thick British Accent HERE) "Well Ladies and Gentlemen I regret to inform you that it looks like we will be here on the tarmac waiting to take off for a little bit. Apparently the runway that we usually depart from has a whole in it; I am not quite sure what happened, but I know that they are trying to repair this whole as quickly as possible. In the mean time, we have been put in a cue with all the other flight leaving Madrid tonight and we are going to have to wait our turn, we had to get you all on to the plane in case they move us up in the order and we are able to take off sooner than expected. At this point it looks like we should be set t take off in about an hour or and hour and fifteen minutes or so. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you for flying with EasyJet." That was about 99% accurate, damn I am good. To cap it all off when we arrived in Lisbon it was pouring down rain and my bags came off the carousel complete drenched with water, but man did it feel good to be in Lisbon.
I will need to pick this up in a while, off to more family functions.
Phil
Where did we leave off, class I am guessing, The last week of classes was extremely slow, I only had two classes that met and for the most part we just reviewed and the teachers answered questions. The only class were we really did anything was in my Macro Economics class, as always we were behind on material, and the teacher raced through as much as he could in the last two days. Apparently, we will have another review before the test if we want to schedule one with him, so my friend Miguel from Portugal that is in the class is going to do that for the two of us. That was about all that happened at school the last week, once again not too interesting.
On Friday, which would have been about the 18th, Ryan Lathrum, a coordinator at the Business school back at ASU came to Madrid with his friend Stephen. We were put in touch by some by mutual contacts, and I offered to show the two of them around the city a little bit. We ended up having a great time together, Ryan lived in Madrid once upon a time but it was just very briefly and he was studying so he had forgotten some of the places but it was all coming back to him very quickly. We wandered around the city in the evening Friday night when they arrived, took in the night life during Christmas, enjoyed the beautiful lights all over the city, and then found are way into one of my favorite Tapa's bars for dinner. Needless to say, we had a superb meal of great Tapa's and some nice wine, and on top of the that they spoiled me and treated me to dinner.
The next day I had a slow morning, it was my second to last day in Madrid, and I was supposed to be packing to take one of my bags to Marc's house to store while I was in Portugal. I got absolutely nothing done in the morning, and left the house at about 1 in the afternoon to meet up with Ryan and Stephen again. We went to a few more places around the city, and again ended up at a different one of my favorite places for lunch, we all shared a few different sandwiches: Calamari, Chorizo, and Tortilla to be exact, and then continued on our trek. We finished the day off at the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art where Pablo Picasso's famous piece Guernica is kept. I had already visited the museum before, but it had been a few years, and it was cool to get a second look at some of the pieces, and enjoy the new ones also. That evening, I packed my whole life into two suitcases, and cleaned my room so I would be ready to move out, and go straight to the airport on Sunday. After packing, I lugged a huge duffel bag down to the train station and jumped on a train to get to Marc's house. I almost made it there, until we passed the station and I realized that I had caught the wrong train, ha ha ha; I felt like a complete and utter idiot, it was the first time that this had happened to me, and on top of that, I was meeting his whole family for dinner and kept them waiting for 45 minutes while I had to switch trains, wait for another one and then finally arrived! Thank goodness that they are really nice and dd not tear into me! We all went out for Chinese food a a restaurant near their house. No, not the same one that I tried the Tripe at thank goodness. After the meal I was planning on heading back to Madrid and calling it a night, but Ismael and Javier called and wanted to go out to a bar for a few drinks before I left town and it would have been rude of me to tell my best friends no so we went out on the town. It was a real lo key night, we stayed in Pozuelo which is a suburb of Madrid and went to a bar and ended up meeting up with a bunch of different friends that I had met since arriving. I ended up staying the night at Marc's and then waking up early in the morning and catching the bus back to Madrid. When I left his house at 10:30 in the morning, the thermometer read -10C, which is way too cold, damn was I glad to be leaving!
Sunday I arrived home, packed up the rest of my stuff into a backpack and was off to the Airport after saying good bye to the old guys I lived with for the last three months, Jose and Charles. I arrived at the airport just to find humongous lines of people traveling for Christmas, which I was not expecting but should have been. Luckily, I arrived with plenty of time and on top of that my flight was delayed an hour and a half. If Flight from Hell was a movie, I was on the set! A trip that is usually 4 hours from the time I leave my door to the time I arrive at my grandmas took me over 7. Once we all boarded the airplane the mayhem started. First off one of the ground crew members came one and said that there was one too many people on the plane so they started calling out names to see if they could figure it out, after about 20 minutes of flight attendants walking up and down the Isles, the figured out that it was a baby that had two boarding passes or some malarky of the such. To add insult to injury, without skipping a beat after the first messed had settled the captain made the dreaded move you never want to see, he came out of the cockpit to address all of the passengers. let me see if I can do tis justice (Insert thick British Accent HERE) "Well Ladies and Gentlemen I regret to inform you that it looks like we will be here on the tarmac waiting to take off for a little bit. Apparently the runway that we usually depart from has a whole in it; I am not quite sure what happened, but I know that they are trying to repair this whole as quickly as possible. In the mean time, we have been put in a cue with all the other flight leaving Madrid tonight and we are going to have to wait our turn, we had to get you all on to the plane in case they move us up in the order and we are able to take off sooner than expected. At this point it looks like we should be set t take off in about an hour or and hour and fifteen minutes or so. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you for flying with EasyJet." That was about 99% accurate, damn I am good. To cap it all off when we arrived in Lisbon it was pouring down rain and my bags came off the carousel complete drenched with water, but man did it feel good to be in Lisbon.
I will need to pick this up in a while, off to more family functions.
Phil
Monday, December 14, 2009
Dec 9th - Dec 14th
SNOW DAY, yes you heard me right, SNOW DAY...Unfortunately, school was not canceled, but it was fun waking up to a white Madrid. The city looks much different when covered with a light dusting of snow.
So it has been a short week since I last wrote on Wednesday. The end of the hectic week at school wrapped up well. I finished with a presentation in my first year class, had an exam in the same class, and then worked on preparing a presentation for Marketing class, today, Monday. Apart from that, Thursday night I went out for Tapas with some of my colleagues in my marketing class. It was a nice little end of the semester get together.
Well, before getting into the dinner, lets take a step back and touch on something I forgot about last week. So, mom has been riding me to tell more about the culinary experiences I have had here in Madrid, what kind of different things have I eaten. After writing last weeks post something hit me like a 2"x4" across the head, how could I have left it out. If you recall, last weekend at Marc's house we ordered Chinese food, and one of the plates that we got was Kung Pao Chicken; well, much to my surprise when I opened the container, the Kung Pao Chicken had Tripe mixed in with it. Needless to say this would never happen back home and I was at a loss for words when I turned to Marc and said something along the lines of "Pero que es eso, ponen Tripas en el Pollo?, No puedo comer eso, que hasco." (simply translating to "what the heck is going on, they put tripe in the Chicken here, I can't eat that, Nasty!) and he laughed and replied "Con dos Huevos, vamos" (Come on man, grow a pair)...Sorry for being blunt, but that's just about how it went!...What could I do, he was challenging my masculinity because I could not eat tripe, so I buckled down, overcame my fears, and ate a piece while trying to keep a straight face! Ok, so it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be; I was truly surprised by my courage, never would I have thought I could stomach eating Tripe. So there you go mom, culinary experiences.
Where were we...ah, yes the Tapas on Thursday night, that is how I got onto this subject in the first place. So we sat down at this Tapas bar where you pay a flat rate and they just keep bringing different tapas out until everyone is done eating, perfect for college students right! But what is the first thing that comes out of the waiters mouth, "Todos le gustan Oreja?" (Everyone likes Ear?) and without skipping a beat everyone said " si traigalo" (Yea bring it out)...[GULP]...The first thing that came to my mind was Marc the week before saying "Vamos, con dos Huevos!", another thing that I was not too sure about eating, but I had to try it! Sure enough as before it was not half bad, as a matter of fact the pigs ear was actually pretty good, I am not sure that I would order it, but if it were in front of me I would eat it again. I actually ate two or three pieces. Other than the pigs ear, the tapas were pretty standard: Tortilla Espanola (potato and egg), Chorizo (not like the Mexican one we are accustomed to at home, I think this one is much better), Patatas Bravas (potatoes with Brava suace, red sauce), Pimentos de Patron (little roasted, salted peppers, not spicy), and of course Sangria. I am pretty sure a great time was had by all. After dinner, we all went out to a few different places, and then I made the long trek home. From the part of town where we went out it took me about 30 minutes to walk home, unfortunately the Metro does not work at 4 a.m.
Friday morning I woke up with a cold. If I had to guess, I would like to say that it was not from the walk home with just a sweater and low 30's temperatures, but I probably would be lying. I spent most of the day sleeping and trying to get better. That evening, there was a get together for one of my best friends here Ismael. His birthday was on Saturday so Friday night we were all going to meet up to go out to dinner and then to the clubs after to celebrate, there was no way I could miss it. We all met up at a German restaurant, and had a big group dinner with about 18 people from his university and other friends of his such as Marc, Javier,Joaquin and the rest of the usual suspects. I tried to go home right after dinner, but for some reason I was talked into going out for a little to celebrate, stuck to sprite, and was able to duck out before to long and make it home for some more R&R.
Saturday was another day of laying in bed sleeping as much as possible, watching some movies, and drinking a ton of green tea. Yet again, another one of my friends had a birthday party and I could not miss it. I met up with Marc in the evening around 9 and we went to a Indian restaurant that we are now regulars at I would say; we walk in and the owner comes over to give us a hug, welcome us, and asks how we are! I had a nice Lentil soup, and some spicy chicken Vindaloo to try to kick the cold, it did not fix it a 100% but I woke up feeling better on Sunday! After dinner, Marc and I stopped by my friends Ries' apartment for his birthday party. I tell you what all of there people from the Netherlands stick together, there were about 20 or 25 people there having a few drinks before going out and maybe 5 or so were not Dutch. It was nice chatting and wishing Ries a happy birthday, and as I did the night before after a short while I was able to get out of there without being sucked into going to the club all night, success. Another long night of sleep, and more R&R, not a bad day to end the weekend. I was able to speak with my parents, and Rick since he took my spot at home for the weekend, and heard about an awesome ugly sweater party that all my friends back home went to, the pictures look great by the way guys!
Well, that takes us full circle back to today...sitting here in the library after my successful final marketing presentation, in Spanish no less, feeling liberated with only a few more lectures between me and a winter break in Lisbon. Hopefully it will not snow too much more this week and the weekend comes quickly.
As always I hope you are all well back home, finals went well for everyone that has finished, go well for everyone that is finishing, and more importantly that everyone has a wonderful Holiday season. Happy Hanukkah to those of you you celebrate.
Much Love,
Phil
P.S. A Huge Congrats to Amanda Fraser for Graduating this semester also, I am sorry I forgot to add you in the post last week, but I am real proud of you too, CONGRATS!!!!
So it has been a short week since I last wrote on Wednesday. The end of the hectic week at school wrapped up well. I finished with a presentation in my first year class, had an exam in the same class, and then worked on preparing a presentation for Marketing class, today, Monday. Apart from that, Thursday night I went out for Tapas with some of my colleagues in my marketing class. It was a nice little end of the semester get together.
Well, before getting into the dinner, lets take a step back and touch on something I forgot about last week. So, mom has been riding me to tell more about the culinary experiences I have had here in Madrid, what kind of different things have I eaten. After writing last weeks post something hit me like a 2"x4" across the head, how could I have left it out. If you recall, last weekend at Marc's house we ordered Chinese food, and one of the plates that we got was Kung Pao Chicken; well, much to my surprise when I opened the container, the Kung Pao Chicken had Tripe mixed in with it. Needless to say this would never happen back home and I was at a loss for words when I turned to Marc and said something along the lines of "Pero que es eso, ponen Tripas en el Pollo?, No puedo comer eso, que hasco." (simply translating to "what the heck is going on, they put tripe in the Chicken here, I can't eat that, Nasty!) and he laughed and replied "Con dos Huevos, vamos" (Come on man, grow a pair)...Sorry for being blunt, but that's just about how it went!...What could I do, he was challenging my masculinity because I could not eat tripe, so I buckled down, overcame my fears, and ate a piece while trying to keep a straight face! Ok, so it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be; I was truly surprised by my courage, never would I have thought I could stomach eating Tripe. So there you go mom, culinary experiences.
Where were we...ah, yes the Tapas on Thursday night, that is how I got onto this subject in the first place. So we sat down at this Tapas bar where you pay a flat rate and they just keep bringing different tapas out until everyone is done eating, perfect for college students right! But what is the first thing that comes out of the waiters mouth, "Todos le gustan Oreja?" (Everyone likes Ear?) and without skipping a beat everyone said " si traigalo" (Yea bring it out)...[GULP]...The first thing that came to my mind was Marc the week before saying "Vamos, con dos Huevos!", another thing that I was not too sure about eating, but I had to try it! Sure enough as before it was not half bad, as a matter of fact the pigs ear was actually pretty good, I am not sure that I would order it, but if it were in front of me I would eat it again. I actually ate two or three pieces. Other than the pigs ear, the tapas were pretty standard: Tortilla Espanola (potato and egg), Chorizo (not like the Mexican one we are accustomed to at home, I think this one is much better), Patatas Bravas (potatoes with Brava suace, red sauce), Pimentos de Patron (little roasted, salted peppers, not spicy), and of course Sangria. I am pretty sure a great time was had by all. After dinner, we all went out to a few different places, and then I made the long trek home. From the part of town where we went out it took me about 30 minutes to walk home, unfortunately the Metro does not work at 4 a.m.
Friday morning I woke up with a cold. If I had to guess, I would like to say that it was not from the walk home with just a sweater and low 30's temperatures, but I probably would be lying. I spent most of the day sleeping and trying to get better. That evening, there was a get together for one of my best friends here Ismael. His birthday was on Saturday so Friday night we were all going to meet up to go out to dinner and then to the clubs after to celebrate, there was no way I could miss it. We all met up at a German restaurant, and had a big group dinner with about 18 people from his university and other friends of his such as Marc, Javier,Joaquin and the rest of the usual suspects. I tried to go home right after dinner, but for some reason I was talked into going out for a little to celebrate, stuck to sprite, and was able to duck out before to long and make it home for some more R&R.
Saturday was another day of laying in bed sleeping as much as possible, watching some movies, and drinking a ton of green tea. Yet again, another one of my friends had a birthday party and I could not miss it. I met up with Marc in the evening around 9 and we went to a Indian restaurant that we are now regulars at I would say; we walk in and the owner comes over to give us a hug, welcome us, and asks how we are! I had a nice Lentil soup, and some spicy chicken Vindaloo to try to kick the cold, it did not fix it a 100% but I woke up feeling better on Sunday! After dinner, Marc and I stopped by my friends Ries' apartment for his birthday party. I tell you what all of there people from the Netherlands stick together, there were about 20 or 25 people there having a few drinks before going out and maybe 5 or so were not Dutch. It was nice chatting and wishing Ries a happy birthday, and as I did the night before after a short while I was able to get out of there without being sucked into going to the club all night, success. Another long night of sleep, and more R&R, not a bad day to end the weekend. I was able to speak with my parents, and Rick since he took my spot at home for the weekend, and heard about an awesome ugly sweater party that all my friends back home went to, the pictures look great by the way guys!
Well, that takes us full circle back to today...sitting here in the library after my successful final marketing presentation, in Spanish no less, feeling liberated with only a few more lectures between me and a winter break in Lisbon. Hopefully it will not snow too much more this week and the weekend comes quickly.
As always I hope you are all well back home, finals went well for everyone that has finished, go well for everyone that is finishing, and more importantly that everyone has a wonderful Holiday season. Happy Hanukkah to those of you you celebrate.
Much Love,
Phil
P.S. A Huge Congrats to Amanda Fraser for Graduating this semester also, I am sorry I forgot to add you in the post last week, but I am real proud of you too, CONGRATS!!!!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
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
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