The Confessions of an American in Madrid

Before I talk about Madrid I must admit that I wish I were back in the US right now for the election... but the Brits are really involved in who wins our election and I have yet to meet anyone in Europe who likes McCain. One girl on our trip said a guy asked her, "Who are you voting for? Black or White?"

All the girls in the flat are planning to stay up until 5 am our time to watch the Election coverage and bake cookies. I wouldn't mind betting to see who wins which predicted states.

Class today was not bad. We went on a walking tour of famous London department stores, Fortnum & Mason, Liberty, Selfridges, and Harrods. Yeah, that was honestly our class. I LOVE Harrods after going in there for the first time today. It's like an amusement park.

Okay, so about Spain:

Well there was plenty of drama at Stansted Airport as we were loitering around thinking we had plenty of time before we had to get to the gate. We thought we had to be there at 8:00 am, but it turned out we learned the gate closes at 8:00! So we were not only scrambling to make it to the gate on time, but the security people stopped us because our carry-on luggage (we didn't check anything in to avoid spending 30 pounds on the course of the trip) had too many liquids (we had shampoo, conditioner, hair styling products etc) and that we'd have to check our luggage or have our stuff "destroyed"

We go to the check-in place to have our stuff checked (and pay the obscene amount of money) and they said the flight was closed for doing that. Luckily, we were able to have the airport keep our stuff until we came back for 5 pounds.

Well, since I had to leave my shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash, shaving cream, contact solution, saline solution and whatever else. I didn't wanna spend a fortune on stuff, just bought one bottle of 2-in-1 conditioner for everything including face wash and body wash. I also didn't have my perfume so I smelled like 2-in-1 conditioner the whole time, and being cheap, I'd spritz on a perfume of my choice when I walked into a "perfumeria"

Spain to me was a test to see how many people would think I was Latina. Well as soon as I get on the plane, the guy asked me "So...are you going home?" Enough said.

Being in Spain was a real refresher course in high school Spanish. All the vocabulary, grammar, and culture stuff came back to me. I was surprised that I could actually understand most of what I read and carry on conversations with Spanish people, I guess AP Spanish really meant something after all!

I was getting ready in the bathroom at the hostel and while I was brushing my teeth and every time a person came in, they'd walk out. I was so confused I mean there were like 3 sinks.

Then the cleaning lady goes, "Este bano es para chicos" So apparently I was using the guys bathroom the whole time!

At this cafe called Cafe Comercial and the guy serving us spoke broken english and I couldn't understand what he was saying. He apparently was saying stuff like "You are beautiful" and being clueless and wanting to look like I understood him I just nodded and smiled and said "yeah!" That's what Jen told me what I was doing. Oops!

We had this French guy who was staying in our 6-person hostel room. He was so weird. In the middle of the night he started to reach over to the bed of the girl next to him while he was sleeping completely freaking her out.

I have learned I don't like hostels and I don't like strangers living with me.

We also observed a fight on the street. On top of that, I had to sign up for classes for the Spring semester at UConn right in the middle of my Madrid vacation on the ONE sunny day there, as the rest of the days were rainy and cold. The reason I was freaking out was that I thought I couldn't get into a class that I needed to graduate, but everything ended up working out.

Also, a guy from our UConn in London program was gonna be with us on the trip but never showed up to the hostel so we were really worried that something really bad happened to him. We couldn't get in contact with him as he had lost his cell phone before Madrid. It turns out he was in Valencia the whole time.

At a restaurant, I noticed how bad the language-barrier thing sucks. I had pointed to what was beer-battered calamari. The waiter comes back with pork chops and french fries. This is a problem as I do not eat anything pig. I think he thought I pointed to the one underneath the calamari on the menu, pork chops.

In a nutshell, we checked out the Prado Museum and saw the painting "The Last Supper" which I thought was cool. We also saw El Plaza Mayor, and El Parque Retiro. We met a couple girls from the US studying in Ireland along the way.

I liked the chance to go to Spain as I don't know if I'd ever be back.

Cheers!
Farida