A hot date with the Señora (and her friend)

Alex Gandy, I did not forget your birthday I just didn’t want to tell you happy birthday by a lame facebook wall post. This isn’t much better, but happy birthday.

Here are some bullet points because this little girl I know likes to know what’s going to happen before she reads:

· Drinks with the Señora

· What I actually have been doing in Madrid

· That’s pretty much it

This week I had midterms, sadly that means that my time in Spain is almost halfway over. So anyway, yeah midterms this week. The great thing about studying abroad and not being in a Texas A&M program, is that all you have to do is pass the classes. The credit, not the grade, transfers.

Tuesday I came home from a day out on the town around eight o’clock at night to study at least a little bit for my international regional security class. It really shouldn’t have been a big deal if I had been keeping up with the readings the last three weeks, but I was too busy writing this blog. I don’t have time for readings. My plan was to brief most of them that night as my midterm was the next day. I got up to my room checked my email and then opened the first book when I heard the Señora call, “Tooonnyyy”. Turns out her and a friend were going to get drinks and I was invited. Hell yeah I went. It was one of the best nights I have had in Madrid yet. We started out at some fancy bar that serves free tapas that to say the least were unbelievably delectable. After three glasses of wine we moved on.

I thought we were leaving to go home, but no we made another stop. We went in this place where everyone knew her name. I had to kiss like 35 older women on the cheeks again. (I’m not saying if I enjoyed it.) Marisol (the señora) pushes her way to the bar and orders three glasses of wine. I didn’t have a choice, so I drank it. Next thing I know we have fried squid (the whole things), fried peppers, bread, cheese, and croquetas. I was just trying to do the polite thing and keep up with them(it wasn't easy), four glasses of wine later (that’s 7 total for the night) I realized that I probably wouldn’t be studying for my test the next day. I haven’t gotten it back yet, but I felt pretty good about it.

I have pretty much only been writing about what I have been doing on my weekend trips and so I know you are just dying to hear what happens in Madrid. Monday through Thursday I have class from 9:30 to 1, and then I walk the 45 minutes back to the apartment where I eat lunch. Next is one of my favorite Spanish customs: SIESTA. Then I walk around and see the sights. (thanks to my sister, Leslie for giving me a book the night before I left or I would have no idea what to see) Here are some of the ones I have seen so far:

(Remember: blue = link worth looking at)

The Prado Museum (apparently you can go inside and look at paintings on google earth)

The Reina Sofia National Center of Art Museum (there are a few Picassos in here, no biggie)

Palacio Real

Templo de Hebod

Plaza Mayor

Retiro Park

Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida

In case you looked at all those and are still reading this, it’s rough having to go look at priceless art almost every day. I just finished the Prado Museum after four installments of almost two hours each. Sometimes when I go to these places I pay a little extra to get the tours. The Prado is free from 6-8 everyday so I don’t want to make a free excursion well, not free, so I don’t pay for the tours there. However, there are several tours going on at once and all you have to do is wander around by yourself until you hear one in English. Then you simply look at an adjacent painting and listen to the guide describe and give the history behind the painting that everyone in the group is looking at. When they leave to go to another painting you get a chance to look and see what the guide was talking about. You don’t have long though because the museum is big and you don’t want to lose the group. I simply call it beating the system.

This weekend has been my first in Madrid and I am thoroughly enjoying the nightlife.

Here are more pictures.

Couples making out in the metro: 21

Yours truly and my favorite,

Tony Kroschewsky

Amigos, Prostitutes, and Euro trunks

Since my last post not a lot of interesting things have happened to me, but here are a couple:

· I made friends with some Spaniards

· Prostitutes on Montera

· I went to Santander and bought the coolest swim trunks I have ever seen in my life

When I last wrote you my friends, I failed to mention the five Spaniards that I met in Granada at a bar that are coincidentally from Madrid (Madrilenos). They were the friendliest guys I have ever met and soon realized why. I was with about seven American girls. Regardless they knew I was cooler than all of the other girls and told me they would take me out in Madrid to show me good places and of course introduce me to Spanish girls. There is no way I would ever say no to that because honestly, Spanish girls are the only reason I came here (just kidding, but seriously they are gorgeous). So last week a couple of them called me up and we went to a botellon. I had no idea what that was, but I was going to go anyway. A botellon ended up being a big park in Madrid where a bunch of young people sitting around in the grass drinking and eating is socially acceptable, despite being illegal. When we first got there I was with Franco and Manu and we were wondering around looking for their friends, we did this for about 15 minutes. Manu suggested to Franco that we call their friends; Franco of course didn’t know the number.

We kept wandering around and after another short 15 minutes we found them sitting in the grass with about 7 bottles of wine, rum, whisky, beer, and a bunch of delicious treats. I am embarrassed to say that is the first thing to catch my eye, and then I saw the girls. I couldn’t count them all because I was too busy kissing all of them (In Spain, the common greeting is a kiss on each cheek between males and females or two females). After about the seventh one I realized how great the Spanish culture is.

I stayed there until about 2 in the morning and even though the party was still as grand as ever, I had to wake up for class the next day. This is where the prostitutes come into the story. To get to my house there is a street I have to walk on called Montera. It is known for it being the street of the whores. During the day (the only time I had walked down it before) it’s not that bad, maybe ten or twelve prostitutes leaning against the buildings just minding their own business. Turns out at night it’s a little different. They are out in full force to say the least. As soon as I turned onto the street I started hearing things like, well, just some nasty things. After I saw one of them start to walk towards me, I just started running. You can make fun of me for being scared, but I don’t care. You would have done the same thing if you saw something like this coming towards you.

This weekend I went to Santander which is on the northern coast of Spain and stayed at this hotel (it was a real dump). It was beautiful and the weather was no higher than the 70’s during the day with a cool breeze. It was the first time since I have gotten to Spain that I haven’t woken up in a pool of my own sweat (yeah no A/C here). We arrived on Friday and I did the normal thing that I do when I get to a new city, walk around aimlessly trying to get lost just so I can see as much of the city as possible. Four and half hours later I ended up back at the hotel and after some wine on the beach and went to sleep to be well rested for our excursion the next day. On the itinerary, one of the stops said lunch on the beach. I thought oh how nice, but I probably won’t have time to swim considering the wait 30 minutes after you eat before you swim rule. So I left my suit at the hotel.

We went to a really old town that was founded by the Romans and I was about ten euro away from buying a Zebra skin. We then went to the beach and I learned that we had like three and a half hours. In case you haven’t done the math, that is more than enough time to eat, wait thirty minutes, and then go swimming. Oh wait, I left my suit. This would have been quite the dilemma if there hadn’t of been a store right on the beach with the greatest selection of euro trunks I had ever seen. I quickly found the most ridiculous pair I had ever seen and was saddened to see that they were a size small. So I found the second most ridiculous pair of trunks and saw they were a triple x-large. I tried them on and they fit. (I guess I am considered gravely obese over here) Then I got really sunburned.

Couples making out in the metro: 11 (mind you that again, I was gone the entire weekend)

Yours truly and my favorite,

Tony Kroschewsky

A baby pig and my new friends, the gypsies

Before I get down to business I have a couple things to say:

First and foremost I would like to say thank you to everyone who has been reading my blog. Since I posted the second blog I have had an astounding 134 visitors which is about 130 more than I anticipated and 342 page views. I wasn’t smart enough to install a counter on my site when I wrote my first blog, but nonetheless thank you everyone.

Second, incase this is your first time reading the blog, scroll down to the bottom to start at the beginning.

Lastly, don’t forget to click on the links that are highlighted in blue as you read. I promise it will make things a whole lot better.

My good friend and the biggest whiner in the world, Dwiggy (Dustin Dwiggins) that I know of asked me to install bullet points to summarize the topics of each blog.

· O -Obsession with time

· I -I went to Segovia and bought a baby big

· I -I went to Granada and fell in love with some gypsies

Thanks to technology I have been able to keep in touch with a lot of people since I have been over here. Whether it is through email, talking on the phone, instant messaging or the google video chat it has been great talking to you guys. What has fascinated me most has been that no matter who I am talking to, they don’t ask me what I did that day, who I’ve met, or what I’ve seen. Instead the most frequent question is: What time is it over there? I have absolutely no idea why people are so fascinated with time zones, but here is a link to a website with all the different time zones for everywhere in the world. I hope you guys enjoy that.

Last Thursday was a national holiday here in Spain, so instead of having class we went to this crazy huge royal palace and then to Segovia. Segovia means we have lots of baby pigs in Spanish. Not really. I don’t know what it means, but they are famous for their cochanillo which in fact means baby pig in spanish. Really. So we had heard all about this and to be honest I was quite excited because baby pigs are so cute and cuddly. I don’t know about everyone else, but I was a huge fan of the movie Babe when it came out and would watch it occasionally when I had free movie channels earlier this year.

So anyway, as soon as we got there my friend Ivy (who coincidentally goes to Harvard) and myself couldn’t wait to get off the bus to see the little baby pigs. We were walking around everywhere looking for them, but they were nowhere to be seen. Thank goodness Ivy is a tourist and has a book on Spain and we were able to find out a place to buy baby pigs. After walking up a really steep hill that reminded me of Mount Everest to get to the place I had a great realization. I had about five euro in my pocket which wouldn’t cover the cost of the baby pig. So despite Ivy complaining about the heat and the Everest like hill we were climbing we continued past the place that sells pigs to look for an ATM. That went on for about ten minutes until we finally just asked someone. It was conveniently located on the bottom of the hill. After getting some Euro and re-climbing Everest we arrived again at the place that has baby pigs. There was a sign on the door that had the price: 35 euro. We both debated, but agreed that a baby pig would be worth 35 euro. After going in and telling someone who worked there what we wanted they finally brought it to us.

My very own little baby pig was so cute, so calm, and so still. I was a little bit nervous because it was my first, but I ate it anyway. It was only a portion of the piglet, but the good portion. At one end was the ear and the other a leg, but I enjoyed every single bite. Word got around quite quickly around the group of Americans we were with that we ate baby pigs and we graciously accepted our new celebrity status for the rest of the day.

I know that was an incredibly long and boring Hughes-Peter story so I will try to keep this next one short and sweet. On Friday we went to Granada, which for me has been my favorite city thus far since I have been in Spain. Reasons why:

1. I was able to explore on my own through tiny little streets without hearing people speak English

2. The bars have free tapas (a nice sized appetizer dish) for every time you order a drink

3. Gypsies, gypsies everywhere

Granada is so full of history and beauty and I was able to see some amazing things and places like the room where Christopher Columbus met with Queen Isabella and a Flamenco show. It was also great to never have to buy food; in fact the whole time I was there I only bought cerveza and ate great little sandwiches FO FREE. Lastly, I became obsessed with gypsies. They are so friendly and hand out little branches of rosemary and read your palms and then 89 of them swarm you and demand you give them 20 euro. Like I said, great people.

This weekend I am going to Santander, which is on the northern coast so I am excited about going to the beach.

Here is the link to my photo album, but you need to be my facebook friend. If you aren’t on facebook, make one in like 2 seconds so you can see my pictures.

Couples making out in the metro: 6 (mind you that I was gone the entire weekend)

Yours truly and my favorite,

Tony Kroschewsky

Lost in Toledo, Americanos estupidos, and PDA on the Subway

For some reason in this country where it is considered rude and unclean to walk around the house without shoes, it is socially acceptable for a couple to lick each other’s faces in the metro. I don’t see it or feel it, but something about being underground in a dirty and smelly subway station gets these people going. Today, I am starting a count for every time I see people making out or heavily petting each other on the metro (Spain’s subway). I don’t know the exact number I have seen so far so the count will officially begin tomorrow morning. Okay, I am sorry for the tangent, but I had to get that off my chest.

You always hear that Europeans hate Americans. Well, I have some news for you: I am jumping on the bandwagon. I have recently been the witness of American students disrespecting Spanish customs, culture, and people. Sadly I have seen this with more American students than not and it is truly sickening. Believe it or not a lot of students I am with have been to McDonald’s, KFC, or Starbuck’s on more than one occasion since they have been there. I am in absolute shock to see this because I came to here to experience Spain on every single level and I was under the same impression that this is why everyone else is here, but was extremely surprised when many students decided to venture off to “Irish Pubs” filled with other Americans to drink corona and complain about their Senora’s cooking. I have no other choice but, to ignore 98% American students while I am over here. There are a select few that I can stand to be around so if you are in my program, just assume you are in the 2% so you aren’t offended.

To get out of the “American Bubble” I am currently in, I signed up for un intercambio (a language exchange partner) so that I can meet some Spanish students hopefully. I sent her an email, but haven' t heard back from her. (Please, please, please be one of the thousands of beautiful spanish girls I have seen on the street!!!)Also, in a couple of weeks I am going to start a program to have lunch and dinner four times a week at another University with more Spanish students to do the same thing, but for this I get paid 80 euro a week. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me.

Last Sunday we went to Toledo, Spain for the day. Toledo is about an hour outside of Madrid and is the original capital of Spain. It has been around since ancient times. Because of its location being surrounded by three rivers, everyone(Jews, Muslims, Christians) that conquered it stayed here because of the ideal set up of the city. On the way there I met a couple of really nice guys and we decided to venture off together. After two of them dropped behind me and another guy, we decided to play a game where each take turns picking a random turn to get super lost and get a chance to really see as much of this beautiful city as possible.

Now if you are picturing this city as like a New York, Austin, Houston, or Chicago you need to change your thoughts to cities that you would see in A Knight’ s Tale or Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail. These streets are tiny cobblestone walkways between massive old buildings that wind and weave just to get people confused. We heard Spanish music in the distance had to find it. My new friend Tom, just like me is absolutely in love with Spanish music. We found the stage with hundreds of people in chairs and standing around it and little kids dancing (I wish I had the shamelessness to dance like little kids). There were all kinds of instruments and dancers on stage and neither I nor Tom could tear ourselves away from it. After about an hour the music stopped for a break and we had to meet up with everyone else for lunch.

We had an hour to find the meeting place. We set off in what we thought was the right direction and then an hour and a half later ended up on the absolute farthest point in the city from where we wanted to be. Then, once we were about to be at what we thought was the right spot, we ran into some girls from our program who said that everyone had left to go to the eating spot which we had no idea where that was. Thirty minutes later we somehow stumbled on to everyone else who had been waiting to get into the place. We then ate a delicious meal and drank some (not too much like a few people) Sangria Wine, but unfortunately no siesta. We then went to see Catedral de Toledo, which was amazing. I now know where all the gold went when the Spaniards were exploiting the new world. We had a good time and when it was time to leave one of my new friends JaiMarie chose the worst possible bus to get on because while the other three busses left… ours stuck around for an hour waiting for the stragglers. Nonetheless it was a successful trip and I was able to see a lot and meet some nice people.

On my first day of classes I woke up at 9:06 A.M. to discover that my alarm on my phone doesn’t work. This left me with 24 minutes to get to class with a 30 minute metro ride. I made it there only seven minutes late wearing the same thing as the day before with greasy bed head (yes Lauren Harabis, jbf hair) and my teeth were unbrushed, but hey at least I made it. The class only has seven people in it so I know I made a good impression on mi professora showing up late looking like a homeless person. Tomorrow I am going to Segovia and then this weekend we are going to Granada. I hopefully will return with some super hilarious stories to make up for the lack of them in this blog. Hasta Luego.

I haven’t figured out a way to post pictures other than facebook so you have to be my friend to look at them, but if anyone has any suggestions email me!

Couples making out in the metro count: zero (this will go up quite quickly)

Yours truly and my favorite,

Tony Kroschewsky

Voy ir al Espana

Alright, so this is my first blog. As you may or may not know, I recently arrived in Madrid to study abroad for six weeks and I thought this would be the easiest way to let everyone know what I am doing over here (by everyone I probably just mean my parents and maybe two or three aunts that will be reading this), but nonetheless I hope to make it interesting and somewhat entertaining because to be honest I was probably exaggerating when I said two or three aunts.

Throughout the blog there are links to click on as you read to help you get a better idea of what I am talking about that are highlighted in blue.

Anyway, I guess I will start with the day before I left. The day before I left and after about the 82^nd time somebody asked if I knew anyone going on the trip with me, I started to freak out that in fact I knew absolutely nobody. I wasn’t scared that I wouldn’t make friends on my trip or anything like that. I just didn’t know what the hell I was going to do all day when I got there because there is only so much to talk about with my Senora when she can only ask me “How old are you?, Are you hungry?, and Where is the bathroom?” and I actually understand what she is saying. (By the way, she only asked me the first two questions.) So anyway between packing and watching the Bourne Identity to get me ready for any trouble I’d face in Europe, I found a piece of paper with other students names on it that are in my program(ISA) and wondered to myself how creepy it would be if I facebook stalked them and added them as friends. I knew it was pretty creepy so I asked my good friend Dwiggy(Dustin Dwiggins) about it and he assured me that it was indeed creepy, but that he did it when he went on his study abroad trip so it would be okay to do it. I then proceeded to find 3 of the 4 other people on my list and sent them friend requests with messages apologizing for the creepiness.

You may be wondering why I am telling you this long seemingly pointless story, but unlike most of my awful stories that I inherited from my Mother’s side of the family (Hughes-Peters often tell very long stories with every little unnecessary detail and no climax at the end… Sorry Hughes-Peters if this how you are finding this out) this one is different. I am standing at the counter of the foreign exchange place in the Newark Airport after the most uncomfortable flight I have ever experienced and possibly the most uncomfortable three hours of my life (I was stuck between a 300 pound man reading a book about slaying dragons and a guy who either was a UFC fighter or wanted to be a UFC fighter) when I heard someone say, “Oh my gosh is that Tony? I think that’s Tony! Should I say his name? Tony! Tony? Uhm hey are you Tony?” I turn around to see two of the girls that I had facebook stalked! Crazy chances of that happening right? Turns out we are on the same flight to Madrid and we can kill the six hour layover in company.

We arrived in Madrid the next morning around 11:30 after our seven hour flight, which probably about four of those hours I watched Los Simpsons en espanol so I could brush up on my Spanish. I don’t think it worked because when I got to my senora after we said hola and did the kiss kiss thing she asked me, “Tu entiendas?” I just look at her in confusion and saw the disappointment on her face. She then said, “Do you understand?” I said yes because she was speaking English at that point so she said something else in spanish and when I said, “no entiendo.” She was ecstatic that I could say more than hola. Since then she has been forcing me to speak broken Spanish, and I think I might be improving or maybe she just doesn’t have the heart to tell me I am wrong.

Next time I write I should have some more interesting stories because we are going out tonight (I wanted to last night, but everyone else said they were too lame and boring to go out after not sleeping but a couple hours on a plane in the last 24 hours) and tomorrow we are going on an excursion to Toledo.

Today I leave you with some pictures of the apartment I am staying in which is in downtown Madrid about five minute walk from the royal palace, the royal theater, and the plaza mayor.

Yours truly and my favorite,

Tony Kroschewsky