Adios, Madrid!

I know, I've been a real slacker these days when it comes to updating my blog.... but keep in mind that tying myself to a computer when there's so much to see and do in any given city is not exactly high on my priority list! Having said that, let's catch up on everything since my last post.

My last night in Madrid was spent hanging out in Puerta del Sol and decided to check out a few bars. I walked into Dubliners, and all I heard was English, (mostly Americans) and I promptly checked myself out of that place. Walked into another bar, and ordered a "cubata." The bartender probably could tell that I was not from around here, and literally emptied out his bottle of Jack Daniels into my glass. The shot of Coke he poured in after really just hit the spot. Stumbled out of that place, and decided to check out Joy, a nightclub that was pretty popular back in 1997 when I was studying here for a semester. While in line, I ran into Cindy from (of all places) Redondo Beach, who was in Madrid celebrating her birthday. To make things even more interesting, she works for IBM and promptly pulled out her Blackberry, pulled up my Dad's profile and sent him an email, no doubt telling my Dad what a jackass I am after a few cubatas!

The next day I trained over to Alcala de Henares for a tapas festival, about 45 minutes away by train from Madrid to meet up with Pili, a friend of mine I met back when I was studying abroad. We met up with her brother, boyfriend and a couple of her friends eating tapas, drinking, talking and lots of laughing about the cultural differences between Americans and Spanish. It was a fun evening, and glad I had the chance to catch up with her again, as well as meeting her friends. After only five days in Madrid, my Spanish is really getting back up to speed (the cerveza and rioja probably didn't hurt either!) Which reminds me... my mom would be happy about my Spanish right now. Everytime we go out somewhere in LA and she discovers that somebody speaks Spanish (which never happens, right?) she insists that I speak back to them as well. I can hear it in my head right now: "Daniel, use your Spanish! We did not send you to Spain for nothing!"

I'll be heading up to the north of Spain, to Pais Vasco (Basque Country), to meet up with Unai, a friend who I met through Nori and will be staying with him for a week or so. I will, of course, write a separate post about my time there since Madrid is a part of Spain, which Pais Vasco, well, really isn't. More on that later!

Hasta luego!