I've had a really busy weekend, so I'll start with Thursday, September 30th, Erasmus party Oktoberfest:
On Thursday, the Erasums Student Network had an Oktoberfest party at their local bar in Madrid, CHIC Club. Before I went to the bar, I meet up with some friends at the Plaza de España in Madrid (Español: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_de_Espa%C3%B1a_%28Madrid%29 English: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_de_Espa%C3%B1a_%28Madrid%29 ). Here are some pictures of the Don Quixote monument in the Plaza de España :
They were having a mini botellon and celebrating a girl's birthday. we all hung out and talked for about an hour or so.
Then we went to the CHIC Club. There were so many international students in the bar that you could hardly move. It was funny too because it was supposedly Oktoberfest but the only German thing about it was 3 8 1/2 x 11 print outs of the German flag but it was really fun none the less.
They had beers for one euro and I meet some really cool new friends! At one point I went to the bar to get some drinks for all of us, when I came back, my group of friends had taken one of the crutches from one of the guys in our group (he sprained his ankle really bad at La Noche en Blanco and has been on crutches ever since) and started doing limbo with it:
We had a good night the of the time:
(Thanks for the photo Mario Moreno)
I even gave Niels, the guy with the hurt ankle, a piggy back ride to the metro station:
Friday, October 1st RESA PAELLA y Club KAPITAL
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On Friday, the dorm building I am staying in had its grand opening for the cafeteria and all the residence of the dorms were invited to a free lunch of paella. They cooked the paella in the biggest pan that I have ever seen in my life and it was really good! Here are pictures of them preparing it and pictures of some new friends I made that day:
At around 11:30 Friday night I meet up with a group of the students from the residence hall, there were about 100 of us, and we caught the last train to Madrid to go to a club. The train is free after a certain time at night until it closes around midnight. While we were on the train they all started singing this old, but famous Spanish song. Here are the lyrics, I still don't really understand the song yet but I'm learning (http://helektron.com/letras-de-la-cancion-camarero/ http://pichicola.com/camarero-camarero/) .
Here is the video from the train ride:
We went out to a club called Kapital that night ( http://www.grupo-kapital.com/) This club is the biggest and most famous club in Madrid. It used to be an old theater and was remodeled into a night club with 7 different floors.
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| In order to buy drinks, we had to buy vouchers from a person in a booth and then present the vouchers to the bartenders and they gie you the drinks. I think its for security reasons so the bartenders don't have to worry about handling cash in such a big and busy club. |
Girls got into the club for free that night because there was a special promotion. something called Coco Loco, I really don't even know what it is but the cover would have been 15 euros otherwise.
Here are a few videos from the night at the club:
People on the dance floor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRf4h2MQFhA
I was hanging out with 2 girls form London most of the night and we ended up chilling in a room that we didn't know was reserved until we found these signs...
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| The we found this ridiculously expensive menu! |
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| Then the people who had bought out the room for the night came back and hung out with us. It was one of the guys birthday. Ironically enough these guys were from London as well. |
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| And, they bought us drinks. but I left at about this point because they were all really weird and one of the guys said that one of my friends was creating a bad vibe and he wanted him to leave... |
We stayed at that club till about 5 am and took the first train home at around 5:30 or 6 am!
Saturday, October 2nd CAPEA:
This is a traditional Spanish get together and I was told that it is really popular for bachelor parties and large parties. I met ESN at Real Madrid's Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. The bus met us there and took us to a farm on the outskirts of Madrid. This was the first time I have ever seen the stadium.
My ticket for the Capea said that we were leaving at 6pm so I got to the stadium around 5:15. no one was there when I got there. I waited till 5:45 and no one showed up. I started to get worried that I was In the wrong place. Then I ran into a girl named Chloé who recognized me from UAM. We walked around the parking lot together looking for people from ESN and asking all the different bus drivers if they were there for the ESN trip. Of course, none of them were. Finally around 6:15 or so people started showing up. The bus showed up around 6:30 and we all finally left around 7:15. I really have to get used to the "Spanish time".
We arrived at the farm around 8pm. There was a cocktail hour that consisted of sangria, beer and potato chips. There was a little bit of music and I hung out and talked with a some of the people who work for ESN and Chloe.
Then they fed us. The called it a BBQ but really they just brought out some trays with slices of different meats between some bread. After we ate, we went outside to play with the baby cows. The cows are a special bread of cows that are very territorial and that's why the run after you when you wave the flag at them. The baby cows aren't very dangerous though because they are really too small to do any damage. They had 3 different cows. There was one really small one and 2 that were bigger. The girls were out with the small cow and the boys were with the bigger ones. The little one, Chelo was very timid and didn't really understand what was going on.
Here are some videos of me with the baby cows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jekv4_85is
Here is a video of 2 guys who are really good at it!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7JiJ7UFrIc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYZw5jFgZE0
Chelo escapes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuAfXMMhLEk
After this we all went back into the barn for some more drinks and a dance party.
Then Chloe, Raul ( a friend of one of the people who works foe ESN) and I went for a midnight stroll through the farm. It was really nice and peaceful. After that we went back out to play with the cows for a little bit more and then Raul gave me and Chloe a ride home so we didn't have to take the night bus back.
Sunday October 3rd 100 AÑOS DE HISTORIA DE LA GRAN VÍA!
http://www.elmundo.es/especiales/gran_via/
Sunday was the celebration of the main road in Madrid, Gran Via. It turned 100 years old so to celebrate, they closed the street down and had concerts all night. On my way to the train station I ran into 2 boys who live in the Residencia and are from the US. It just so happened that one of them is from Binghamton, NY!! what a small world!!! So then I met up with some of the same people I hung out with on Thursday. Before the concerts stated, one of my friends gave me a little tour of the area:
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| Gran Via |
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| This is just one of the stages they had set up through out the city |
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| Templo de Debod |
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| Templo de Debod |
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| Palacio Real de Madrid |
We ate dinner at a place called VIPS. Its a really popular chain in Madrid. The food was really good! I had a turkey sandwich and I tried a sample of a chocolate milkshake :) (http://www.topmadrid.com/2006/09/restaurantes-vips-en-madrid.asp)
At 7:00pm the concerts started and it rained the entire night. But we had a really good time anyways.
Here is a video clip of a group called Taxi ( http://www.el-taximetro.com/) that played first:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfEVWJ4uG9k
The second group we watched is a band called Pignoise ( http://www.pignoise.net/ ) yes, pronounced like it looks...
Here are some more pictures form Sunday night:
Looks like your having an awesome time! Please post more often! I love you! Uncle Jim
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