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