Madrid y Mas

The last couple of weeks have literally flown by as I have started to adjust to the two different schedules here in Spain: The weekdays and the weekends.  The weekdays are from Monday to Thursday where I spend my time in class, doing homework, or just killing time off.  Classes aren't too difficult as of yet, but I think that my cinema analysis class and my two business classes will get much more difficult in the near future.  As for my grammar and conversation classes, those should help a ton with my fluency.  Once Thursday rolls around the atmosphere changes in general.  People start discussing plans for the weekend or get prepared to head out of town for a trip somewhere in Europe.  Two weekends ago everyone in the program just stayed in Toledo and checked out the local scene which was pretty fun.  A big difference between Europe and the States is the club atmosphere.  In Minnesota, clubs really aren't big at all and people usually just go hang out at the bars.  Here, people will go out to the bars then head to the clubs after the bars are closed until about 6am.

This last weekend, the program had a day trip to Madrid for a little sight seeing at the palace and cathedral.  We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside, but it was pretty sweet.  The throne room was really cool with both thrones a ton of life-size statues.  Everywhere we went in the Palace, there were lions, which I guess are a symbol of power.  One of our favorite activities when going from room to room around 80 times was to guess what each one was for from the porcelain room (made entirely of porcelain), to the man cave (wasn't actually called that) that had a pool table and the smoking room adjacent to it.  It was also interesting that the entire tour was in Spanish for us since our program is supposed to be entirely in Spanish.  I wasn't able to catch some of the random facts, but it did reaffirm my conviction that tours are the same no matter where you are whether Madrid, Washing D.C. or the University of Minnesota: They get a little tiresome as they spew random fact after random fact at you.

After the tour, the majority of our program decided to stay in Madrid for the remainder of the weekend, with most of the group at the Hostel Cats.  We shopped around a little bit and did some sight seeing around the Madrid City Center including Plaza del Sol.  For the night we kept trying to plan a huge group thing but everything backfired when no one knew how to get to the club we all eventually settled on (the person who did didn't want to leave until 1 am), so everyone ended up just wandering around for most of the night trying to find someplace to go.  The group I was with eventually found the club after a long hike and terrible directions from the locals who would claim the club was "just around the corner" over and over again. Once we arrived however the club bouncers demanded I.D.'s and since two of our group of 6 didn't have them we decided we wouldn't split up and turned around.  Saturday night a large group decided to go to Kapital for the night, which is supposed to be the best spot for Saturday nights (the party night in Spain).  We headed over there early to get in at a discounted cover before 1230 with a coupon that lets you in for 15 euros and two free drinks.  The club is incredible.  It has 7 different levels, all with a different theme.  The first floor is a massive dance floor with a bar behind it.  On the stage there are two go-go dancers that are basically eye-candy.  Every 15 minutes or so they shoot CO2 down onto the floor to cool everyone off because it is hot, crowded, and everyone is dancing.  The atmosphere is awesome and everyone is going nuts the whole time, dancing to any song that comes on even though the majority are American.  The second floor is a separate club with a small stage set up for what looks like a small band along with another bar.  The third floor was set up as a different bar/dance area and a balcony overlooking the 1st floor dance floor.  The fourth floor had a specialty bar for mojitos along with another seating area around the balcony set up as suites.  The fifth floor was a completely separate dance floor playing different music that was more Spanish influenced.  The sixth floor was incredibly quiet and had a bunch of couches and a bar that exuded a classy style for lounging or hanging out with a special someone.  The seventh floor called heaven was set up as a neo-gentlemens club that had bright blue lighting with a mixture of sofas and tables for card games along with a bar on each end.  The mood was also relaxed here and there was even a special room for smoking set aside.

I spent the entire night bouncing back and forth between all the levels meeting up with different people, exploring the club, and dancing with various people, even dancing on some raised platforms on the first floor.  It was a ton of fun and I would definitely return there again, but that we have planned a similar group trip (smaller group) to Ibeza (island off the east coast of Spain), the party capitol of the world, during Carnival, the party week in Spain.

Overall it was an incredible experience and I can't wait to see more of Europe and have a great time this semester!  Oh and learn a lot of course..