What a blast! I’ve been trying all week to catch up on and
tweak my sleep schedule, but with the time change, the siestas, and the stress
it's been difficult. Add going out for a night on the town to the mix and I
am completely messed up. But, you can’t decline offers for good times,
especially when you only have 4 weeks to do it all in. Thus, I took off my
responsible student hat and put on my party pants.
I was supposed to meet up with two guys from my study abroad
program for a concert on campus. I left the house at 10:15pm and that is when I
finally had an experience that was completely and totally different than
anything I have ever had in The States.
It was almost eleven-o-clock on a Thursday
night and the streets were bustling. Not the typical bustle you would expect
from a college city. It was what the normal kind of bustle is all over Spain. After
siesta is over around 5pm people get back out on the streets. The elderly were
out for walks, mothers pushed strollers, and children were running through the
streets laughing. It was awesome. You can’t feel unsafe walking on the streets
late at night when 6-year-olds are riding their trikes past you on the
sidewalk.
I got to La Casa de las Conchas a little after the concert
should have started. I couldn’t find anyone, anywhere. I listened for music, I
peeked into bars and I could not find any sort of sign that there was even a concert
happening at all. I was nervous for a second, but I had another friend I was meeting in less than an hour so I decided to just explore.
I asked around if anyone knew where a concert was taking
place. People helped me look, but no luck. One guy started creepin. He asked in
very broken English if he could “follow me home”… I assumed he meant “walk with
me” and I was walking to La Plaza Major, a very busy location, so I made it as
clear as I could that that was where I was going, that he could walk with me if
he wanted to and that I was meeting a friend.
We walked and talked both English and Spanish, and stood in
La Plaza Major for a while just talking. I kept checking my watch, praying my
friend would not stand me up. Had a short political discussion with the guy and
learned that he dislikes the U.S. President (The first Spaniard I have met to dislike him).
I asked for his reasoning, and I had to make him repeat himself multiple times
in different ways, not because I didn’t understand what he was saying, but
because I couldn’t believe how ridiculous it was.
Evidently he dislikes Obama
because the children of actor Will Smith cried when they heard he was elected
hahaha and he said he believes that if the children of Will Smith are crying then
that means re-electing Obama was a bad idea. He was dead serious too. Hahahaha
I really needed my friend to show up.
Low and behold Julia appears! Thank goodness. But me being
nicey-nice asked if it was okay if my new friend tagged along. It ended up not
being the worst of ideas, but he most definitely was a creeper. I met some
amazing new friends through Julia and we immediately read each other’s minds. They
helped me ditch the creep in the blink of an eye and the rest of the night was a blast!
We hit up some of the campus bars. Cheap shots, yummy
sangrias, and familiar music and dancing. (Gangnam Style is EVERYWHERE!) Then we found a nice, quiet, cozy bar to sit and
get to know one another. Another American in the group, Alix from France, Stephanie from England and Mike from... well everywhere, but he hails from Switzerland and we all just sat and chatted as
though we were the oldest of friends. It was lovely.
Didn’t get home and in bed until 4am though, class at 9… PQ tried to get me to go to a discoteca on Friday night, but I was feeling Thursday night that morning and all weekend long. I'm getting too old for that kind of stuff haha But I couldn’t have
had a better first night out in Salamanca.
No comments:
Post a Comment