Granada

I was in Granada for work (LC Visit) for three days. I was there to help coach the members and learn more about the reality of AIESEC in Granada. Of course i feasted on tapas (which are HUGE... you get a full hamburger and fries as a tapa for free with a drink for 2 euros, i still dont understand!). I also spent a lot of time on one of the campus' of the university of granada. the campus is on a hill....its a building (with one faculty), a billion stairs and then another building (with another faculty) and another billion stairs. You would for sure lose like 20 kilos if you had to climb the mountain everyday. i of course took the bus one day and walked up the mountain the other.

the members of aiesec granada were great! we eat lots of tapas, went salsa dancing and walked around the center of the city a bit. I really like Granada - a nice small city with lots of history. I didn't go to the Alhambra (as I have already been twice) but discovered newer parts like the Plaza de Torros (where all the great tapas places are) and a cafeteria in the university that has the most AMAZING view of Albaicin, the Alhambra and the entire city. I loved it!

Here is my crazy travelling scehdule for all of you to enjoy! Feb 19 - Valladolid > Feb 21 - Back to Madrid > Feb 23 - Granada > Feb 25 - Back to Madrid (for 7 hours, overnight) > Feb 26 - Zaragoza > Mar 1 - Back to Madrid (overnight only) > Mar 2 - Málaga > Mar 5 - Barcelona > Mar 7 - Madrid > Mar 9 - Malta > Mar 18 - Madrid (for how long, who knows?!)

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A very interesting birthday

Yes, that’s right, February 22^nd is my birthday. Those with facebook might be wondering why they didn’t know. Its because I didn’t post it on facebook! Now that the day is almost over, I can recount a few interesting details.

We went to lunch at a Greek restaurant near the office. We had two waiters serving us – one a Spanish guy and the other an African guy. Sylvia of course tried to get something for free (like a dessert or something), but its not really a custom in Spain. But the African waiter did come over, notice we were talking in English and sang happy birthday to me. So! I’m in Spain, in a Greek restaurant with an African man singing to me in English. So international.

In our metro station (near the office), there is an array of musicians and singers (both good and bad) that perform either in the station or on the metro itself. (Our favorite is a lady that sings AWFUL karaoke every morning in an unknown language wearing the same clothes everyday). But! On the way home, there was a man playing the violin. Stella asks him to play happy birthday because of obvious reasons. He starts playing, Stella and Sylvia are singing and Kimmie is recording. At this point I am dying of laughter and embarrassment and have turned a very bright colour of red (an achievement with my skin tone). Stella at this point is telling random people “es su cumpleaños!” (It’s her birthday). Sylvia commented “Stella, stop telling the old ladies and tell the hot guys!” But alas, no boys just nice old ladies.

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Valladolid EB Retreat

The EB of AIESEC Valladolid invited me to a casa rural (cottage) to chair their EB retreat. We went to a little village (pueblo) 30 minutes outside of Valladolid. It was a great cottage with lots of room, a great kitchen and an amazing patio (but it was a little too cold to use). The weekend was filled with a lot of laughs, jokes and of course drinking games. We played board games, card games (i have learnt how to play with Spanish playing cards - there are different suits and ways of counting!) and did some sessions to team build. I even tied their hands together with string and made them cook and eat lunch that way. It was very entertaining for me! I spoke so much Spanish (i.e. 95% Spanish) that I was exhausted by the end of the weekend!

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Munich

Beer + Cold Weather = Canada... i mean! Germany! Sylvia and I hoped on a plane on Saturday to Munich. My friend PEC lives there right now, doing a semester abroad at the Munich Business School. This is the first time Syl or I had been to Germany. It was very cold (kind of like home) with snow and slush and a cold wind that made your face freeze. As soon as we arrived, there was a giant BMW grill in the airport - very cool. but what was even cooler was that Lufthansa has free coffee machines in the airport (the fancy ones with like hot chocolate and espresso and stuff too). After meeting up with pec and his friend xavier, we walked around to get a few drinks and catch up. the weird part was that the bars and restaurants were closing at 11:30 or 12:00 on a Saturday! but we found a couple of places to enjoy a beverage and then went to a club. The club was very interesting - loud techno and electronic music and very interesting characters. our favorites were the 2 blond german girls who couldnt dance to save their life - they just bounced around off beat, looking like they were having an epileptic seizure. they also had high top, hip hop style sneakers lining the bar - random but cool detail.

Dachau: on valentines day, syl and i headed out to Dachau, where the former Nazi concentration camp was. we knew it was going to be an intense experience going in, but it was very hard and emotionally draining. we got the audio guide which provided so much more detail and sometimes in a graphic manner. it was nonetheless very interesting to see exactly where all of the things you read in a history book actually happened. the day itself was super cold and cloudy - the perfect conditions to experience Dachau. Especially after seeing the crematorium, you feel a profound sense of loss and complete confusion - how can one person do this to another.

Bavarian Dinner: We went for a very Bavarian dinner that consisted of meat and potatoes in different forms. It was excellent and VERY German. There was a band playing at the restaurant as well, giving us a nice ambiance. We then went to the Hofbräuhaus, a beer hall that is all over Germany. A friend of mine advised me not to go there, but it was awesome! There was a band playing, 1 liter mugs of beer and very salty pretzels. It was really fun to just chill, drink beer and chat.

BMW: On the way to the BMW museum, we had to wait at the u-bahn stop, münchner freiheit. it was the coolest metro stop ever! pec described it as the star wars metro stop. whatever it was, it was awesome - electric blue columns, lime green walls and mirrors on the ceiling. while we were in Munich, it was Carnival, so the BMW museum had a bunch of things planned - one being a Brazilian carnival party and the other was a motorcycle demonstration. For the Brazilian party, they had a small capoeira demonstration, dancing, a band playing and food and drink from Brazil. There was also a guy doing tricks on his motorcycle on the stairs, it was cool. The brazilian music was a cool soundtrack to looking at the new BMW cars and motorcycles. We went to the Olympic park after (it was across the street). Nothing is open, so we just walked around. It was a little anticlimactic. Like it was cool that the Olympics were there, but we couldn't see much other than the outside of the buildings.

Carnival: In Marienplatz (the main square in Munich), the carnival celebrations were in full swing. I guess Carnival in Munich is like Halloween. Kids and adults dress up as whatever they want (take a look at the picture of the 2 guys dressed up as M&Ms). There are concerts in the main city squares and of course crazy parties. We walked around the city center in the freezing cold. Munich is a really cool city - it has a small town feel but has so much history and significance.

Party: Our last night in Munich, we went to a University party in a Roman Temple. That should sound weird right? But it was really cool! One area had a DJ, another area for drinks and in another room they had a band playing disco remixes. We had a good time dancing around in a very strange location. We then went to the Milch und Bar which was so much fun. They played 80s music all night and we just danced the night away. We made friends with 4 other Spanish people that were also studying in Munich and lived in the same building as pec. They were awesome and really fun to party with.

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vending machine - for books?

when at the príncipe pío shopping mall in madrid (a very cool mall that used to be a train station!) i came across a vending machine. i know, a vending machine is not blog worthy or really worthy of any mention. but! what if it was a vending machine that sold books. thats right, i was impressed and felt it was note worthy!

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pick pocketing in madrid

camera, ipod, wallet with full salary in cash and credit cards, coin purse with 1.50 euros. i was the victim of a couple of pick pocketers one february evening. but jokes on them, they only took my coin purse with 1.50 euros - suckers!

Ok, so the full story. Lupo (visiting us from Panama that week), Cynthia (Morra), Kim and I were on the metro home during rush hour. we were huddled around one pole in the middle of the train. there was this sketchy couple that were speaking russian or something (and the chick DEFINITELY had a mustache). this is what it looked like: the guy went to hug his mustached girlfriend and i felt something near my purse. i moved it and mouthed to Morra, "I think they are trying to pick pocket me". at the next stop, when people got off, they moved and sandwiched Morra. She only had dirty tupperware in her bag, so they wouldnt have gotten anything good at all. then at the next stop, they moved to kimmie. when our stop came, Morra, lupo and i started to get off the train. we noticed kimmie wasnt following us so we turn around to see that the mustached lady had opened the button on kimmie's coat to take her wallet out. When kimmie turned around (she felt something in her pocket), the mustached lady dropped the wallet and kimmie grabbed it. at this point, lupo and i are trying to reopen the metro doors so kimmie could get off and morra had jumped back on the train from the other entrance, ready to drop kick the mustached lady's ass. the pick pocketers ran down the train. Kim and morra reported them at the next station but i doubt they caught them (although i dont know how many mustached ladies ride the metro nowadays).

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Bar Hawaiano + Luci finishes her last exam

On february 4th, Luci finished the last exam of her degree! So in celebration, we had cake in the office and Sebas even made Luci a graduation hat out of paper (very creative). After work, we went to Montaditos for dinner (they have mini sandwiches for like 1-2 euros, cheap drinks and overall awesomeness). We then headed to Bar Hawaiano. Its a little place that doesnt like too big of a crowd but is amazing! The place is like a cave including faux rock for the wall. You sit around and order drinks, which of course come in a VOLCANO! that has smoke too! The straws shoot out for about 2 feet (yes i nearly poked myself in the eye several times) and you share the drinks and enjoy the overly sugary Hawaiian delights. The waiter also brings all of the girls leis, a carnation and little umbrellas (and tapas of course). Super cheesy but very entertaining!

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Alicante - the most relaxing trip from hell

our friend maria has some things: a nice camera, a car and a house on the beach near alicante. our friend stella had a birthday and a wish: to get out of madrid for the weekend. this meant that cynthia (morra), stella, maria and i piled into her car for a great trip the beach! you would think it was all rainbows and candy, but we had a few hiccups.

we planned on leaving thursday night around 10:30pm, to get to alicante by 3am or so, sleep and then have the whole day on Friday to sit at the beach. We only left Madrid at around 1am. We filled up gas and were on our way. Towards the last part of the trip (around 3:30am), I was sleeping in the back seat when i hear maria and morra cursing in the front seat. We are out of gas, the gas light is on and we have already been to 2 gas stations that were closed. we decided that waiting at a gas station for a few hours was probabaly better than running out of gas in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere. So we pulled into the next gas station we found and it was seriously out of a horror movie. Maria and i checked out the place once to see if anyone was around and nothing, just alleys with shady lighting. Then morra and maria went to look around and a car alarm went off..so of course we are freaked because we think that someone is lurking in the darkness. during the next 45 minutes or so, we are joking, morra is screaming out of the window of the car "quiero gasolinaaaaaaaa" and generally being a gong show. as we are talking and deciding what to do, we hear a man´s voice, very low like a grumble. of course we are freaked out (again), looking around everywhere, making sure the doors are locked etc etc. morra insists she doesnt hear anything. then we are quite again to see if we can hear the man again and we hear something! then morra says, "ah! thats my stomach!!" so the conclusion? morra´s tomach sounds like an angry man. next, a random truck driver comes by to pick up his trunk and we find out there is a 24 hour gas station about 20 kms away. assuming you can drive about 50kms on the gas light, and the fact that we had already driven about 35 kms on the gas light, we decided to risk it and go. so we drive REALLY slowly (like 40kms/hr on a highway with a speed limite of 120kms/hr) and we made it to the gas station!

we finally got to the house and slept for a few hours before getting groceries. the beach house is awesome! its been in maria´s family for a long time (her mom grew up there) and is across the street from the beach. literally. you walk 20 steps from her front gate and you are on sand. even though it was a bit windy and cold, we spent the good part of 3 days on the beach.

on friday (our first day on the beach), towards the end of our time there, maria and i decided to walk along the beach. at this point, it was incredibly beautiful - the rock on beach a cool red colour, the sea was really blue and there were lots of seashells. there was also these really cool rocks that you climb onto. they were generally pretty flat and close to the sand. so maria and i decided to start walking on the rocks. there was a slippery part, and i slipped, stumbled a bit and fell face first. i hit my legs, my arm and my face. (disclaimer: a little graphic & bloody, skip ahead if you need to! :P) When i stood up, i looked down to see my big toe nail on my left leg flopping in the water, it was only attached by a bit of skin. maria ran towards me asking if i was ok, i said ok and that just my toenail was gone. then we look down and a huge flood of blood came down my leg. we rolled up my pants to see lots of blood coming from below my knee and the blood pooling in the water aronund my feet. it looked like a low budget horror movie at that point.

maria got me to the beach and then ran to get stella and morra. at this point, im super light headed and try to gain my bearings. when i looked down at my leg again, i started to freak out a bit from the blood. while morra was calming me down and walking me from the beach, maria and stella ran to get the car. we jumped in the car and maria was on the phone with her dad who is a doctor. we went to pharmacy #1 and were shooed away, then we went to an ambulancia, where they wouldnt treat me because i didnt have insurance from the EU, then we went to another medical clinic and they wouldnt see me because they didnt any doctors. SO THEN! we went to another pharmacy and they finally helped. they were kind of shocked no one would help me! so she patched me up and we bought supplies (like gauze and antispetic) and we were on our way.

after getting back to the house, i felt fine after some dinner. we were playing monopoly when i looked down and saw that my bandage was completely soaked and blood was dripping down my leg. we changed the bandage only to find the 2nd one getting wet pretty quickly. we decided that going to the emergency room was the best way to go, so even if it was nothing, the doctor could tell us that (or get stiches if i needed). 2 hours in the hospital and €204 later (it only took 5 minutes of time with the doctor and the nurse and all they did was re-wrap my leg and toe), we were on our way.

in the next few days, we hung out, sylvia met up with us, we sat on the beach and went to a restaurant to have paella and celebrate stella´s bday. we also had a sweet photo shoot on the beach with maria´s awesome camera. i don´t have any pictures yet, but they will be up soon!

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