No more classes! So let's party it up!!

Thursday a grand thing happened. I went to campus, took an Arte Exam with that my fall semester ended! I left campus for the final time and am now on winter break until mid-January. ¡Que guay!

Thursday afternoon I packed a bit, skyped a bit and rested a bit. Then, I dressed up for a night on the town with our whole program. We went first to Isabel's house for a final Christmas party. She has a tini-tiny flat but she still had us all over. There wasn't room for everyone to sit, but this past semester we've become close so it was perfect. We arrived to a table covered with yummy treats. She had tons of food including many Christmas treats like turron, candy covered pine nuts, chocolate three kings and the torta de Reyes tradicional (traditional 3 kings cake). We chatted and finished final business (like program evaluations). During the end of the party Steph revealed the "superlative game" that she had prepared for our final party. She had written superlatives (most likely to...) on slips of paper for us to read out and award. It was great because they weren't generic ones. She had written them specifically about out trip so the game turned into a memory of the semester and all we've done. And what was I awarded? Most likely to be a Señora, Most likely to look like their mom (mom and I got pegged as twins when whe visited), Most likely to return to Spain and Most likely to write a book (this is based mainly on their reading of my lengthy blog entries). After this wonderful party, we did a hard thing. We said goodbye to Isabel. We don't have plans to see her again before we leave ... so this night was goodbye. She cae downstairs with us to say goodbye and it was sad. However, we were cheered by the suprise of falling snowflakes outside (and Isabel's adorable face when she saw the snow). We took a final picture and gave her big hugs. Goodbye Isable, the best program director ever. Thanks for everything! And come visit Stetson so I can see you again!!

Then, after this party, we had decided to go out as a group. This would me my first time really saliendo por la noche (going out, and this time later than the last metro) ... and I figured I would give it my best efforts. We started our night by botellón-ing (enjoy my Spainglish). Botella means bottle in Spanish and to botellón is to drink in the open air (aka, parks, streets, plazas). Drinking in the streets is totally legal in Spain and it is a much cheaper way to drink than buying drinks in the clubs and bars. Lindsay and I classily split a 1.30 euro box of red wine. It tasted alright actually, which was suprising. We botellóned on the metro to our intended bar, and we arrived feeling relaxed and ready to dance. The bar is called Leche de Pantera (Panther's milk). The inside is made to look like a cave and it was a neat bar. Its name comes from the fish bowl drinks (to share) that they sell ... Leche de Pantera because the taste like spiked chocolate milk (someone described it as a giant white russian, but having never had a white russian I cannot defend nor deny this statement). I actually didn't get anything at the bar except a glass of water because I was bubbly enough with the wine I had on the way. This bar was a blast. The music was fun, it wasn't too very crowded and we had a big group to dance with. There were only a few hiccups. When we first arrived, a group of Spanish boys insisted on playing darts where we wanted to dance. We all decided that a dartboard in a bar where there is lots of dancing = a bad idea. No one got hit though, and the stopped playing after a bit, which was much appreciated. Also, there was blue-striped shirt guy ... the very persistant Spainard who wouldn't take No, Gracias for an answer and returned no less than half a dozen times seeking a dance partern. It got to the point that Lindsay and I (my fellow non-single lady) developed a strategy. When he came near, we danced with each other. I would grab her shoulder and we'd hold hands and close him out. This was very successful. Lindsay and I made good "novias españolas" since we weren't looking for "novios" here :) This made dancing much more fun as we were able to defer all unwanted advances. We danced until 3 when the bar closed. After this, we contemplated moving to another bar or club and staying out till the metro re-opened at 6 am ... but tired from our night, 6 of us decided to head home. But first, we stopped in Sol at the 24 hour Pizza shop for warm slices of heaven. After this, I ended up home and in bed around 4:30 am. I was dead tired ... and this is still earlier than the average Spanish night out (all nighters). But I had a great time going out with everyone and it was a wonderful way to celebrate the end of the semester!!


Friday morning, I woke without an alarm at 11:00 am. This was earlier than I had expected but I felt well rested. I think I slept solidly for those 7 hours so they felt like longer. The first thing I did upon getting up was shower. My hair reeked of tobacco smoke (as well as did my clothes from last night). I am looking forward to returning to the land of "No Smoking"establishments!! During the day I rested and packed a little more. I skyped a little and made evening plans. At 5 I met John and we went out the end of the green metro line to Caso de Campos. This land used to be the king's old hunting grounds. Now it is the location of the Zoo, Aquarium and Amusement Park. We didn't arrive early enough to enter any of these things but we walked around the area and peeked through the fence at some of the animals. It wasn't a long outing, because it has gotten quite cold. But, it was nice to get out of the house for a bit and see yet another part of Madrid. I returned home for an evening with Elena, eating dinner, talking about out days and watching a little TV. It was nice. We also discussed a worrying piece of news: an Air Traffic Controlers Strike started today without warning all across Spain ... cancelling ALL FLIGHTS in and out of these airports today. This is bad news bears for 2 reasons. One, my friend Kaleb (a re-appearing figure in this blog) is scheduled to fly into the Madrid airport tomorrow morning. I am worried about his flight. The flights are scheduled to re-open at 1:00 am though so I am keeping my fingers crossed. Two, I am of course thinking about my own flight, the very important one back home, and praying that it is not affected. Elena says that these strikes are usually concentrated on puentes (long holiday weekends like this one) and that my Tuesday flight should hopefully remain unaffected. However, the entire Marist group is scheduled to fly out Sunday. Oh my. Too much to worry about and we know too little about how long it will last right now. But for now, I just hope that Kaleb can get here safely to enjoy a weekend in Madrid with us a tour guides. Here's hoping!