the disco teca

wednesday i don't have class until 2:30 pm. dream come true, right? the first week, i'm still having trouble sleeping at night. i wake up at 1pm wednesday, walk out into the hallway and see carmen.

"hola"

she looks up at me (...that's not a good look...) and starts talking at me through broken english about how i need to leave the house before this time. ....what. "lo siento," i say and scurry past her into the bathroom. oh crap, i have to get out of here NOW. i wash my face and brush my teeth and head back into my room, where carmen is already starting to clean. what do you need to do in here? you just cleaned in here yesterday, reorganized my stuff, changed the temperature on my alarm clock back to celsius option -- even when i changed it back to fahrenheit the day before...and the day before that -- and my favorite pen is gone!! seriously, what do you need in here?

at home, my parents probably come into my room on monthly intervals and don't go through my stuff when i'm not home (and if they do, they're smart enough to be sneaky about it). she walks out and i close the door and get dressed. i'm in such a hurry i don't even put my contacts in, and i run out without saying goodbye. or adios. whatever. senora? more like satan...

my 2:30 ends up being canceled until next week. so i don't have class until 4. great. now what? i eat lunch in the cafeteria and mess on the computer in the lab until my class. sociology: introduction to anthropology. my teacher is american, she has lived on and off in madrid the past 5 previous years, this is her first semester at slu (my guess is this is her first class here also). she seems pretty cool. in the middle of class, she asks if anyone is from southern IL or has been there. try 20 years. she asks if anyone has been to cahokia mounds, and to my surprise, i'm not the only one that raises my hand. after class, i bond with my teacher about the mounds and the witches that go up there on summer solstice.

day one of class in a foreign country for the first time ever = success. ..now what do i do? dinner is not until 8:15. i have 3 hours. no way am i going home right now. i head to the Supersol, a supermarket, up the street to by shampoo. while there, i see friends, also buying shampoo. i smell the different kinds, but everything smells like aloe or men's cologne (except the chocolate scented shower gel, which i opted not to buy because it smelled delicious and the bottle looked to much like chocolate syrup -- would could lead to a hazardous accident). i go for the cheapest stuff they have. this is no time to be picky.

after we buy our shampoo, i look at my watch. almost 6... too soon. "do you guys.... want to go to golden cock? i really don't want to go home... " i explain my senora situation. but they don't need an excuse to go, they would accept either way. we get a pitcher of sanmiguel and sit down. david gets one of those asain looking toy cats out of a bag (the ones that sit up and swing one arm at you) and puts it on the table. it's about the size of my head.

i stare at it. "...what... is that...?"

"cat. needs batteries."

"...why did you buy that...?"

he explains. but i still really don't get it.

"you should take that to bars with you and have people take pictures with it." two nights later, he does precisely that.

7 pm.... i should catch the metro home. i definitely don't want to be late for dinner. we pay and leave.


at home. i walk in, look down the hallway. all my roommates are hiding in their rooms with the doors shut. well... at least the feelings mutual about senora... i knock on diana's door and i explain what happened that morning.... or afternoon? ..and we talk about how we scary she is. brittany comes in and joins. i mention talking to student life. is it too soon to try to get out of here? find a new senora?

dinner is ... same as usual. carmen serves us and watches. we try to talk to her, but usually end up just talking to each other. despite everything about her, carmen is a pretty good cook. tonight, she makes us this pizza that has tomato sauce, ham, tuna ..mozzarella? ..cheese, and black olives - in that order (mo, you'll love it). this is something i will probably make every other day when i come home. sooo good. "me gusta muchoooo," i tell her. she probably thinks i'm sucking up. ...maybe i am.

next morning i leave early. it's been 4 days and i'm leaving early and coming home late. with motivation from talking to shari the night before, i go to housing. i explain the problems and the woman in charge is concerned and agrees that carmen is being a little ridiculous. she tells me as of now, there is no where else for me to go. she asks if i would like her to talk to carmen. "NO!! no, no. i'm pretty sure that would just create a more hostile environment." she says ok and tells me to come back after the weekend and tell her how it went. if it was truly miserable, they'd find some where for me to go. i think about this weekend. absolutely i'm going out... i have yet to experience the night life, whereas the other kids here have been going out the entire week- and their senoras promote it! ...carmen might kill us this weekend...

i have my art history class with diana. which has a final project that i really not thrilled about putting an effort into. switch out? next is philosophy, which i know some kids in as well. a friend sits next to me and starts to drift off, and i feel bad when i start to argue with the teacher, calling attention to us. i'm sorry, but i'm not a fan of philosophy. yeah morality is important and everyone should be nice to everyone. but you get in depth about what that means and you just go in circles. drives. me. nuts.

today is thursday. one of the biggest going out nights in madrid (just like every other day ending in "y"). i talk to kids at school, and everyone is going to club joy -- basically assumed, a night club that caters to the americans in madrid (aka slu). seriously, student life has advertising in their office for this club. and thursday nights, it's free cover charge. CHINGG!!

dinner: amazing rice with cheese that has apples, oranges, and ... crap. i forgot the other fruit. it was SO good. my mouth is watering thinking about it right now. then salad and some chicken. she fed us more than usually. i wonder if it's because she knows tonight is a going out night...

brittany and morgan have morning class so me and diana head out alone the catch the metro to sol, where club joy is. we meet renata and head down the strip. every where you walk, people are coming up trying to convince you to go to their "disco teca," offering a free drink if you come in. we know it's early for joy and people won't get there until 1, so we go to another bar first before heading there.


at joy, bouncers check our ids to make sure we are 18 and up. they wear suits and look very intense, but i think it's an act. inside the club is pretty awesome (see picture). the theme for thursdays is "thursday night fever." set up like a disco and playing all 80s-90s (and some new) american music - which i also here in grocery stores, bars, chinos... everywhere. [saturday on the bus to segovia, i hear someone ask, "does anyone know any clubs that play spanish music??" i laugh out loud].

we get drinks and me and diana talk to friends while renata goes nuts on the dance floor, showing off what she learned in latin rythms and the salsa she knows. i join her after a while. one things about dance clubs -- i need room to dance. i hate it when a club is so crowded that you're touching 8 people at the same time. how am i supposed to dance like that? don't touch me, i don't know you. so i dance with renata and friends until it gets too crowded for my taste. diana and i talk with some spanish but english speaking guys. one asks me what i'm drinking and sort of nudges my glass before i can look down and see what he did. damn it. that was half full. i tell diana i'm going to the bathroom, where i throw my drink in the toilet.

when i return, diana is... well, a lot friendlier with the spaniard that i was ever expecting to see out of the girl. whoa! i thought this girl was conservative! haha! after awhile -and some pictures which i privately emailed to her the next day, i pull the two apart. she'll thank me later. and she did.

about 15 minutes later, diana has realized she lost her phone and keys. oh...shit... when carmen gave us our keys, she made it very clear that the one to the apartment building was a HUGE problem if we lost it - that it (for some reason) could not be copied in madrid. yep.... we're going to die. tomorrow to be exact. better write my loved ones a goodbye letter when we get home. we search over the ground (although it's very crowded now), ask the bartender, etc. ...where is that piece of shit spaniard... we spot him and diana fights the crowd to confront him, returning with nothing.

"well... let me buy you a drink," i say to diana. since we're dead tomorrow, might as well have fun tonight, right? "i don't think that's a good idea!" renata says. i have yet to see renata drink more than a few sips of alcohol, yet she's crazier than all of us combined. it's sort of refreshing. i ask her about it, and she just explains to me that she gets crazy when she drinks. girl, you're already crazy. you get any more crazy you're heads going to spin like the freaking exorcist.

so instead, i buy myself a drink. or try to. a guy from at the bar hands me his free drink ticket, explaining he has an "in" there and has tons of them. alright i won't argue.. but that doesn't mean you have an "in" with me. i talk to him for a minute then end up talking to a spaniard - or what i think is one, he was actually born in CA, but he is definitely spanish - about why he voted for mccain. seriously? it's because he has money.

diana finds me and exclaims that the coat check had her keys!!! the rock in my stomach drops. but still no phone... weird... at least we don't have to worry about carmen. and our lives.

by that time. the club is full. about 60% is kids from slu. it was a blast. but since i wasn't dancing, i was starting to get bored. and it was starting to get late(for this american anyway, early for everyone else). we make sure renata finds friends to take a cab back with - metros close at 1:30. it was 3. for people that live far, it was cab or the night bus. for me and diana, it was a 10 minute walk home. for free. on the way home, we stop at a chinos and get pringles for the road. the first time eating junk food since home. almost forgot how being bad can be so good. as we munch, we strategize how to enter the apartment without waking carmen. ...ok, take shoes off before we open the front door. do not close the squeaky bathroom door that is right next to her room. do not flush the toilet. do not breath.

we get home, follow the plan, and go to bed, hoping tomorrow we won't be in trouble.