Futbol y Spanish Guys

Hey everyone!

I went to my first Spain futbol viewing at their stadium in Madrid. Apparently theres supposed to be a big screen inside the stadium and people have to stand to watch. As many of you guys know, Europe is crazy about their soccer so we all knew it was gonna be a crazy night. This match was Spain vs. Chile, Spain won 2-1 of course.

This is us! Im getting sooo dark in Spain! I pretty much live in the sun now :(

The stadium was all filled up by the time we got there so there were several screens put outside for fans to watch.

Here's a shot of the crowd during halftime. At this time, there was thundering and lightening. Oh, and for those of you who are curious about the Spanish guys (*cough cough* laura), theres some in the crowd ;)

This is when the rain came pouring down, but we're all avid soccer fans here, a little water wont wash us away!

So, Spain won and the people went crazy. Lots of yelling and running around. The Metros were packed with soccer fans!

We had to squish ourselves into that! bunch of sticky wet people

Here's some guys in the metro rolling up weed out in the open. Cops here arent that strict at all. They even holler at girls down the street. lol

This is for you Laura, and im sure everyone else who is curious of what authentic spanish guys looks like. lol. Everyone is fit here. I rarely see ANY fat guys or girls.

Machine Wash Cold, Line Dry Only

I did my laundry for the first time today! Finally! Gosh, it was soo bad cuz everything smelled like cigarrette smoke. In Madrid, youre pretty much allowed to smoke anywhere you want (Perfect place for you Ba!!!)

So this is the size of a Spanish washing machine. It only takes half a regular american load but it takes 2.5 HOURS to wash!!

So when I first moved in, I saw that there was two rooms connected to the kitchen, one was the pantry room and the other was just a room with rope tied across it and a laundry basket. Yeah, I just realized it was where your supposed to hang dry your clothes.

See that narrow doorway in the back?

Look it, I did it all by myself! Ma would be so proud :)

Our retro looking fridge

Here's a look inside!

No American brands here! Most of their milk is sold in cartons on the shelf.

Here's the view from our balcony.

There's the bar thats right downstairs.

Random Post

Thao, my friend was looking at the "cue pix" on your laptop and he says youre really pretty :)

So I realize that my pictures have been really.. boring. Its cuz I dont have a camera.... so here's some randomz until i get one :)

In Spain, you can take passport pictures in a kiosk, like sticker pictures! I think thats soo much more simple than going to Costco or someplace. Only costed me 4 Euro

Some of my friends from the program in the metro (aka subway). Ignore my awkward smile.

Getting ready for a jump....

Yay, Im the highest!!

This blog post was kinda lame I know... I promise I'll do a Spanish food one next! Im really excited about that one. Their customs and stuff are soo different here! But here's something to start it off...

This is a calamari sandwich. Its basically fried calamari in a baguette or "bocadillo". Its pretty good, really popular and cheap here in Madrid. You'll all soon notice that white bread is eaten A LOT here.

Like, if you were on a low carb diet in Spain, you'd die of starvation.

Plaza Mayor

Kimmi, I changed the clock! Now you guys have an idea of what time it is in Madrid

Chi Han, is that really what that little toilet's for?! I'm usually always down to try new things but i cant even imagine what it would feel like to have cold water squirt up at my butthole after pooping.. lol.

So, I just had my first day of Spanish class today. It was pretty easy. I cant wait till i know fluent spanish so i cant get out there and converse with the locals!

Now im sitting at a dining table that's oddly placed in my bedroom which also has a fireplace.

I just heard a lot of yelling right now coming from the bar across the street. I take it as a sign of good news since the Spain vs. Honduras soccer match is on.. Dude, Madrid is gonna be crazy if Spain keeps winning their matches. I'll definitely take pictures of the bars in the near future to show you guys how much passion the Spaniards have for thier soccer team.

So on with the pictures. There are many "Plazas" or sqaures located throughout Madrid. They're all quite touristy, filled with shops and eateries. Here's a couple pictures of my day at Plaza Mayor, which is walking distance from my apartment.

These are a couple of my friends and I on our way there. The clouds are so still and the city is so ancient looking that it really feels like we're in the shopping center of the Bellagio sometimes.

Because of all the tourist, many people show off their talents to make a little money. Like this jolly guy on his accordion.

Some people are talented at just sitting around. Look at that kid, haha, what a little fool. He thinks its a real statue! haha

Oh man did this guy fool me! Could have sworn it was really spiderman! (i seriously dont know how hes making money, he's there like everyday)

This one was scary. The head in the middle is real and the two on the side is controlled by his hands. Sometimes he jumps up and charges at people.

Oh, a funny thing happened to me yesterday:

So I stopped by a tiny market to pick up some food. As i was weighing my apples, a little old lady comes up to me and says something in spanish while pointing at my bag of apples. All i did was smile hoping she'd get the hint that i didnt understand. But then she keeps on talking for another minute until i finally say "lo siento, no hablo espanol". Determined to let me know what she had to say, she goes up to a shopper nearby and he comes up to me and starts speaking in spanish and pointing at my apples. By then i was like.. "Oh no, am i doing something wrong?" Then they kinda stand there smiling and staring at me which brings 2 other customers looking my way. Then they all start smiling at me and speaking to each other in Spanish!

Now, i felt really stupid. I didnt know whether to put my apples back, or exchange them, or walk away, so i kinda just stood there looking at them talk amongst themselves about me until a french women comes by and overhears their conversation.

The french lady is now smiling also. She comes up to me and says "the old women just wanted to give u a recipe for cooking those apples!" Now everyone is laughing at me as my facial expression changes from pure confusion to an "Ooohhh I get it" expression.

Yes, I was a very confused "china" girl

No Time for Rest

Wow, the past few days have been super busy. Lots of walking around and stuff. Spanish classes havn't started yet, but we had to meet up at the insitute for orientation and for a little walking tour of Madrid. Turns out our apartment is located right next to where all the entertainment is tourist attractions are!

I havn't talked about what my apartment looks like yet. Truthfully, I thought it was really ghetto when I first saw it, now I realize how historic and charming it is. Here's pictures of what you see when you walk down my street. A lot of construction.

Heres the front door. Cool huh?? Our doorstep is a big sheet of metal :(

Once you get inside the building, we have to walk up 4 flights of stairs! no elevator... I mean, usually its not that bad but in Madrid, after a full day of walking around, its killer on your legs.

There are a couple of my roommates opening the door to our place. Theres no doorknob.

Our apartment is basically a LOOONG hallway the makes a whole bunch of turns thats lined with doors that open up into different rooms including the living room and kitchen.

This is our cute little living room. Pretty huh? You can open the windows and step outside onto the mini balconies.

This is my room. I live in a double.

Our room is big enough for a dining table. Random right? Theres even a fake fireplace along the wall. haha

This is our bathroom. All 6 of us have to share it, theres 2 boys and 4 girls altogether. The toilet u see in the picture is not the one we use. I actually dont even know what that toilets used for, most likely a boys urinal?? There's a normal one behind that sink. The flusher is a metal string that hangs from the ceiling!

Now this is our adorable little kitchen. Look at the stove! its soo retro!

Next to the sink is our washing machine. It only fits like half a normal load and takes 2 hours! The Spanish usually dont use dryers cuz clothes are usually done drying within a matter of hours when u hang them on a line outside due to the summers heat.

The kitchen has a HUGE walkin pantry. Theres even a random table in there that hold the utensils.

And thats the small tour of my apartment! So so much more, but i dont want to bore you with the small details. Maybe I can make a video sometime, itll be more interestinggg.

My Arrival to Spain

So I was telling you that a lot happened my first day. Here's how it went:

My friends and I landed in Madrid and immediately had to call for a taxi to get to our insititute. Since the taxi driver couldn't speak English, we had explain the place to him in broken spanish, which lead him to drop us off at the wrong place. We went around aimlessly asking the locals how to get to our destination and ended up walking about a mile with big luggages until we found it.

We got our housing assignments and had to split up since we all lived somewhere different. This is when I got really scared because it was getting dark and I had to take the metro (subway) for the first time in a foreign country all my myself!

So I had to carry my huge luggage around and up and down 10 different flight of stairs to get on and off the metro. Luckily, a lot of the spaniards were super nice and helped me with carrying it most of the time.

This is the entrance to the subway. When I got there that night, it was SOOO crowded. When the first metro came, it was so packed that people were pushed up against the windows. When the door opened, I thought no one could get in but the people around me just pushed their way through and got in!

It looked kind of like this.

So then the metro left without me and thats when I learned, you just have to force your way through. When the next one came, I was determined fit. The door opened and I pushed myslef into the poeple. The door almost closed on my luggage but I moved it out of the way in time. Then the metro started moving and I felt really awkward because I could feel a lot of people staring at me, probably because I was asian.

This is what it looks like in the station, this picture was taken a couple days later though. Those are some of my roommates, all UC students.

When I finally got back up to the ground floor, I was surrounded by old buildings and spanish people walking around. Like a tourist, I walked around with a map in my hand looking for the street signs for a good five minutes until I realized the street signs were attached to the walls of the buildings.

When I finally found the street that my apartment was located at, all I saw was construction and had a hard time finding my building. So I ended up asking a spanish boy nearby if he can help me (by pointing to a map and making hand gestures) and he turned out to be really nice and did just that. He even helped me carry my luggage up the 4 flights of stairs!

When I got into my apartment, no one was home so I took a quick nap. I found out later that 2 of them were home, they were just sleeping though. And that ends my first day!

Espana!

Hello everyone!

I'm gonna start my follow me overseas SPAIN edition :)
Its already the second day but I've been so busy i havnt been able to start till now! A lot has happened.

RIght now though, my roommates and I are watching the lakers game on the internet, its 3am right now but jet lags keeping us awake.

Ill update with pictures and stuff soon!

-Thy