Otra semana interesante

I feel like I never fail to have interesting experiences here in Madrid! Last weekend, the MTV music awards were hosted here in Madrid, so there was a huge pre-awards show concert at the Puerta de Alcala, which is right near Retiro Park. It was insanely crowded with people (I guess people get motivated by free concerts!) and the acts were actually pretty well-known. The performers were three American groups- 30 Seconds to Mars, Katy Perry, and Linkin Park (so a very unique mix). I went with Ruth and Kelly, and we actually ended up watching from Ruth's office, which was RIGHT next to the stage. We had an amazing view, and unlike everyone outside, we could actually move without being pushed by others. Also, one of Ruth's co-workers had prepared a little party for the event, so we had food and drinks too. It was our own little VIP fiesta! hahaha

This week at school was pretty short. We didn't have school on Tuesday because there was yet another holiday here in Madrid. I took advantage of the day off to catch up on sleep and work and to spend some time with friends. School went well this week- had some productive conversation lessons with my English students. Did have on sort of funny moment- I was teaching the first-year kids about vocabulary to use at hotels, and one of the words on their list was "linen." None of them knew that word, so I then asked them if they knew the word "sheet," since sheets are basically linens....Well, turns out that they didn't know this word either, and they proceeded to start giggling and whispering, "mierda," which means "shit" in Spanish. SO, of course, I was embarassed...told them "NOOO...." and wrote SHEET on the board and explained them how to pronounce it and what ie meant." Of course, as 12 and 13 year old kids, they weren't done giggling. They claimed they didn't understand how sheet was pronounced differently than shit, which put me in a sticky situation. I then realized that they all read books that have some bad words in it, so I figured it was ok to clarify this error in pronunciation one time. Of course, after that, it was a bit hard to recover our hotel discussion, but I made it through OK.

Thursday night, my friend Christina and I went to an intercambio (exchange) event at this one bar where they have cultural/linguistic exchange every week. It was fun- we met a lot of interesting, new people. Friday night, Noel and I went to see "Los Miserables," at a theater on Gran Via, Madrid's equivalent of Broadway. We both really loved the show! We were both huge fans of the English version and of the music, and we thought it was really cool to hear all the music in Spanish and see how the translations differend in order to fit with the music. For the most part, the songs had the same meanings, but of course, they couldn't literally translate every word, or else the rhymes and rhythms wouldn't work. It was quite interesting and overall, the singing/acting was quite good!

Yesterday, my friend Grant came to visit from the US. He works for an airline company, so he has travel benefits, where he can decide really last-minute if he wants to travel somewhere, and if there is space, he can go VERY cheaply. SO, since he studied abroad here and since he was aching to come back, he ended up getting away for the weekend. He was only here for a day (everyone who heard that thought he was loco hahah), but it was a fun-filled day.

He got here around 12 pm, and we took a very long walk all around the center of the city. We walked from my place to SOL, to Plaza Mayor, and to Plaza Santa Ana, where we had a nice Spanish lunch. We then went back to my place to recover a little (we were both exhausted!). Then, we went out to a bar in Alonso Martinez with some of my Spanish friends, which was a lot of fun (they are the ones who thought he was CRAZY for coming to Madrid for a day from the US haha). Then, we met up with my friend Christina and went to dinner at a really cool place in Malasana. So, he got to see LOTS of Madrid in a very short time. Hopefully (for his sake), he is currently on a flight home. He wasn't sure if he would get on, because for whatever reasaon, the flights back to the states from Madrid got much more full in the past 24 hours....soo there is a chance he may be back here later. Either way, since I hadn't seen him since graduation in May, it was really nice to catch up :)

Anywayy, assuming Grant doesn't show up at my door again today, I plan on just having a relaxing day...finally got to catch up on my sleep last night, which was great. Now I'll probably just go to the gym, prep some classes for school, and maybe meet a friend for coffee later. Anyway, thats it for now i think..hasta luego :)