My Birthday Week
Hello once again! As I promised, I am going to write about my past weeks (in which I have miserably failed to post). For this post, we shall talk about my birthday week. To start off, Monday we did not have any classes because the professor decided to let us rest since we had just gotten back from our trip on Sunday. Therefore, Monday was completely dedicated to doing homework for the next day. All I did was go to a coffee shop with a friend; we tried to do homework but the music was getting to soft and was making us want to sleep, so we left to our own homes and continued to do homework. Tuesday we had class. I love classes with Prof. Huergo. He just has such a different manner of teaching. He uses more gestures and goes off into rants that, if you were to walk in would make no sense, but if you were paying attention all (or most) of the time, then you could follow him perfectly. Afterwards, Heather, Alyssa and I go to the Cafeteria/Restaurant downstairs. Remember earlier I had mentioned how one of our assignments was to become a regular at a restaurant? Well Cafeteria Calvin is our restaurant. They have the best paella! I know not only because I've tried it but because I noticed that it gets more full that day in particular.
Cafeteria Calvin deserves another blog for itself. So much has happened there. You really do notice the difference in the way that they treat you, and I can say that it is something that I will miss for sure. Everyone talks to us like family or really really close friends. As you noticed, it's three girls who eat there so you can only imagine the kinds of things we talk about. Not to mention, normally were the first to get there. So, despite our wants to be discreet, they know all about our lives as well as our lectures in class! It's quite amusing though because now it's gotten to the point where Jose, one of the waiters, is helping Heather find her "otra mitad de la naranja"- meaning her "other half."
Wednesday was my birthday! I turned 19, and it was quite nice because my parents called me around noon here and 5A Central time. They sang Happy Birthday, and I got to do the same for my little sister, as it is her birthday as well, and she turned the magical 15. Even though I was not there to celebrate with her, I promised we would when I got back. Regardless, for some reason for the rest of the day I did not feel as upbeat. It was raining, but rain makes me happy and comfortable, never melancholic or gloomy. I think this was because it was the first birthday I had without any family member or friend-almost-family close by.It was then that I realized that we all have to grow up, and birthdays will not always be as important as they once used to be. After that, I felt better and Heather,Alyssa, and Ian took me out for the night (although the ones who stayed with me the longest were my girls-friends). We did not do much that night because we had class the next night and we still had to work on homework. Oh and normally on Wednesdays, we have dinners with the entire group; not this time since we were all still so full from eating so much in Galicia.
As for that weekend, that is when I really celebrated! Friday a couple of us went out to a "Fiesta Mexicana." This compensated for my birthday. A mariachi was there and he sang happy birthday, with the traditional Mexican version that I dearly missed. I danced and drank with friends. Then towards the end of the party, knowing me, we became friends with the mariachi and the DJ and all of their friends. And so began one crazy night. We went to a karaoke bar afterwards and did not stay long as that place was closing soon. So then we went to an Irish pub, and afterwards to eat burgers. To let you know of the time, it was about 6 or 7 in the morning when we went to eat burgers. At the burger place, we became friends with one of the bar tenders and so he was giving us free drinks. Little did we know, that this man we named "Peter" (like from Family Guy because he looked like him so much) was actually the owner of the bar- information we did not find out until last week! It was quite amusing though. My friend and I could not last anymore so we decided to leave the party and go out to have breakfast...by this time we knew it was morning as the sun was rising. So we walked to her neighborhood and had some hot chocolate and croissants. Needless to say, I did not get home until about 10AM Saturday. When I got home, my host mother was awake cooking the lunch that she had promised! It was definitely a very entertaining experience, and now I can say that I have partied as they like to do in Madrid. If ever you get the chance, you should try it too.
I slept for a while and then woke up around 3 so that I could have the lunch that my host mother made. The lunch was actually for another girl in the program and myself. We both live on the same floor and our host mothers are very good friends, so they decided to team up and cook for us. It was wonderful, but they definitely knew that I was tired. Although, now I have promised them that I was going to take them out as well. Overall, as you can see, it was a pretty amazing night. The next night I went out again as one of the friends I made was leaving to Granada to work on his masters and it was his farewell party. I did not last half as long though.
Sunday was all about resting and scrambling to finish my diary for Prof. Huergo.
Unfortunately, now I have to finish a paper for tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed reading about my birthday experience here! Until then my best regards to everybody!
Here are a couple of pictures of my birthday and the weekend!
-------> Alyssa, Chelsea, and me at the party 
----> My birthday..they made me look silly
People who helped me celebrate<-------------
Cafeteria Calvin deserves another blog for itself. So much has happened there. You really do notice the difference in the way that they treat you, and I can say that it is something that I will miss for sure. Everyone talks to us like family or really really close friends. As you noticed, it's three girls who eat there so you can only imagine the kinds of things we talk about. Not to mention, normally were the first to get there. So, despite our wants to be discreet, they know all about our lives as well as our lectures in class! It's quite amusing though because now it's gotten to the point where Jose, one of the waiters, is helping Heather find her "otra mitad de la naranja"- meaning her "other half."
Wednesday was my birthday! I turned 19, and it was quite nice because my parents called me around noon here and 5A Central time. They sang Happy Birthday, and I got to do the same for my little sister, as it is her birthday as well, and she turned the magical 15. Even though I was not there to celebrate with her, I promised we would when I got back. Regardless, for some reason for the rest of the day I did not feel as upbeat. It was raining, but rain makes me happy and comfortable, never melancholic or gloomy. I think this was because it was the first birthday I had without any family member or friend-almost-family close by.It was then that I realized that we all have to grow up, and birthdays will not always be as important as they once used to be. After that, I felt better and Heather,Alyssa, and Ian took me out for the night (although the ones who stayed with me the longest were my girls-friends). We did not do much that night because we had class the next night and we still had to work on homework. Oh and normally on Wednesdays, we have dinners with the entire group; not this time since we were all still so full from eating so much in Galicia.
As for that weekend, that is when I really celebrated! Friday a couple of us went out to a "Fiesta Mexicana." This compensated for my birthday. A mariachi was there and he sang happy birthday, with the traditional Mexican version that I dearly missed. I danced and drank with friends. Then towards the end of the party, knowing me, we became friends with the mariachi and the DJ and all of their friends. And so began one crazy night. We went to a karaoke bar afterwards and did not stay long as that place was closing soon. So then we went to an Irish pub, and afterwards to eat burgers. To let you know of the time, it was about 6 or 7 in the morning when we went to eat burgers. At the burger place, we became friends with one of the bar tenders and so he was giving us free drinks. Little did we know, that this man we named "Peter" (like from Family Guy because he looked like him so much) was actually the owner of the bar- information we did not find out until last week! It was quite amusing though. My friend and I could not last anymore so we decided to leave the party and go out to have breakfast...by this time we knew it was morning as the sun was rising. So we walked to her neighborhood and had some hot chocolate and croissants. Needless to say, I did not get home until about 10AM Saturday. When I got home, my host mother was awake cooking the lunch that she had promised! It was definitely a very entertaining experience, and now I can say that I have partied as they like to do in Madrid. If ever you get the chance, you should try it too.
I slept for a while and then woke up around 3 so that I could have the lunch that my host mother made. The lunch was actually for another girl in the program and myself. We both live on the same floor and our host mothers are very good friends, so they decided to team up and cook for us. It was wonderful, but they definitely knew that I was tired. Although, now I have promised them that I was going to take them out as well. Overall, as you can see, it was a pretty amazing night. The next night I went out again as one of the friends I made was leaving to Granada to work on his masters and it was his farewell party. I did not last half as long though.
Sunday was all about resting and scrambling to finish my diary for Prof. Huergo.
Unfortunately, now I have to finish a paper for tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed reading about my birthday experience here! Until then my best regards to everybody!
Here are a couple of pictures of my birthday and the weekend!
-------> Alyssa, Chelsea, and me at the party 
The mariachi that sang and a friend we made
----> My birthday..they made me look silly People who helped me celebrate<-------------
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