La Noche en Blanco:

More like the night which quickly turned into a morning of sudden and unexpected unconsciousness.

I arrived at the Parque del Buen Retiro and managed to see this interesting video installation of sprouting flowers on a building facade. All over central Madrid there were musicians playing on towering platforms, videos with art slides, projections on buildings, huge crowds of people awaiting a tightrope walker who never actually appeared to walk the rope. We hung out for a couple of hours in one of my classmates’ apartment to have a few drinks, and by the time it was 3:00 it was time to hit the bars. I’d never seen so many people out at that time of night. The streets were full, and through the windows of crowded restaurants you would see older people chatting over dinner as if it were 8:30 in the evening.

We spent some time dancing in the bar. Then we started buying shots of rum and whiskey. Then we went to play with the huge rubber ducks that were floating in the main fountain and splashed around a bit. Finally we decided to catch a cab to this one girl’s apartment, where we continued the shots intake. And the rest is history (of which I cannot remember). I woke up confused the next afternoon in Natalia’s bed wearing her pink pj’s. Though it was quite painful, the night was extremely well spent.

Olé!

My first two classes went pretty smoothly. John the Norwegian sat in on my first one to monitor my performance…which resulted in me forgetting that stereo players cannot play if they are on pause, and in him reminding me about 5 times to close the cap on my dry-erase marker. (In case I scribbled all over my schoolteacher outfit accidentally? In case it dried out within the hour? I dunno.) I had about two students per class, which I guess made it less nerve-wracking for me. There are still some things I need to learn (like keeping students on task and managing to fit all the activities in) but I think overall it was a good trial run. One of the more difficult things was my beginner’s class, in which I had to give instructions to students who had no idea what the instructions meant. With lots of dramatics and charades I think I managed to get through it fine enough. This week has felt like an entire month.

After dinner with Julietta at her Señora’s house, and time spent spoiling her cat Pancho and eating fiber cookies with Nutella, I met up with about ten people from my program for a celebratory drink. We went around looking for clubs with no cover charge, and we managed to find a Latin music discoteca that served cañas of beer in huge vasos: almost like a pint times two. Pretty fun, pretty low key. It was probably free because it closed at about 3 AM (this is usually when dance parties actually begin in Madrid). Bugger that the metro closes about 2 AM. I had planned on just staying out til the metro opened again, but people were tired. So then, a grueling search for the bus that would take me home. Luckily one of the girls knew the city and took me to the night owl bus hub.

Anyway, enough with the recap. It’s La Noche en Blanco! Madrid’s huge annual fiesta and art event in which a gazillion museums and cultural places open their doors for free to the public for art shows, music, theater, etc. until 3 or 4 in the morning. The entire city will be out tonight. I’ll be trying to catch the Japanese drumming in the Parque del Buen Retiro, which is near the Prado Museum. Then go roaming since I’ve done virtually none of that since arriving. But first I must cook and eat a real and savory dinner, since this is has been a rare occasion lately. Ciao!

Gah

Oh Duane Reade, where are you?! All I need are some markers and a posterboard…and maybe some Reese’s peanut butter cups. Every store I pass by here sells either art or food. Or is a bar. I have yet to see a big store containing office supplies. And every time I ask, people wrinkle up their foreheads in thought and say “Hmmm, nope, not that I know of here.” Do people work around here?!