What just happened in the last 6 weeks? Spain happened.

I wrote this a couple of days ago when I was waiting in the airport, but just now got the chance to post it.


What I think about the last six weeks

I am sitting in the airport right waiting for my flight to Berlin, Germany to visit some family friends for a couple of weeks, and am absolutely flabbergasted with myself. I have just spent 6 weeks doing everything I could to immerse myself into a culture, language, and way of life and the thought of coming back to the United States in a couple of weeks where I am not learning something new just about every second or where doing something so simple such as ordering a pincho de tortilla is a prolific challenge, has me on the verge of tears. I need at least a year longer here. Every moment of this experience has been a challenge for me. I came from College Station, a small college town in rural Texas, where I was living in house in a calm neighborhood with my best friend to living in the largest city in Spain literally a 2 minute walk from the very center of Madrid with a middle aged woman who barely spoke any English. It was quite a shock.

Even though I had barely slept in the days before I had arrived, the excitement of my new way of life kept me awake for about the entire first week I was here. I would lie down in my bed and the thought of there being an entire city outside my window that I had never seen would make my heart race and keep me from falling asleep. I am going to blame my Aunt Deborah for that one. A few days before I left I had dinner with her and my Uncle Steve and when we were saying our goodbyes she gave me the best advice anyone could have given me, “Hit the ground running.” I had never thought of it that way, but it sunk in and from the second I landed to right now I never stopped.

I can’t tell you how fortunate I feel to have seen what I have seen and experienced what I have experienced. I learned so much about this place and fell in love with it. I couldn’t have met nicer people (even a few Americans) or learned more about myself here. I guess when you put yourself in a foreign country in a huge city where you don’t know anyone or the language, and you walk everywhere seeing everything you can there is a lot of time to think about things. As many of you may know I was supposed to be in Guadalajara, Mexico this summer and never had any desire to come to Spain or even Europe. I feel like a complete idiot for that and consider myself extremely lucky to have this opportunity fall into my lap.

I was immersed into a large international city with thousands of immigrants that speak all kinds of languages and live all kinds of different ways. There are Chinese people who run every single convenience store in Madrid and try to sell you beer on the streets after 11 o’clock at night, Africans who are trying to sell purses, belts, bootlegged DVDs, and cheap sunglasses, and the list could go on. I had never seen so many people just trying to survive by taking one day at a time and digging through the trash to find something to eat. It really opened my eyes and let me gain a new experience when I was able to see the struggles that people face every day and makes me feel extremely privileged. Walking on the street every day seeing beggars on their knees, women selling their bodies, and alcoholics passed out on the sidewalk with a bottle of liqour in their hand did something to me and it will be strange to not have the constant reminder of how lucky most of us are.

Despite the thousands of requests to keep the blog going for the rest of my life, it just probably won’t happen. I want to thank everyone for reading my blog, commenting on it, and keeping in touch with me while I have been abroad. I might put one up in a couple weeks about my trip in Germany.

Yours truly and my favorite,

Tony Kroschewsky

Barcelona continued...

If you haven't read Part I, you might want to.

WARNING: DUE TO FINALS, PACKING, AND THE LACK OF AIR CONDITIONING; THIS POST IS RATHER MUNDANE.

We woke up around 8am by chance because for some reason my alarm didn’t go off. It was Friday morning and we had an entire day ahead of us of seeing the city of Barcelona. After breakfast at 9 we all boarded the two buses and set out for our great adventure of seeing all of the sights in one day. The first stop we had was the Sagrada Familia. A Catholic church designed by Antonio Guadi, the famous architect of Catalonia, who has produced the most interesting work I have ever encountered. His architecture is purely original and he uses natural occurrences in his works, and you can see it if you look at the curves and distinction of them. He started the church in 1882 and it’s estimated to be finished in 2026, but realistically in 2050. He dedicated his life to the designing and construction of the church and to his religion, Catholicism. After touring the exterior of the church we headed to a famous park he designed in Barcelona, Parque Guell. This is by far the most beautiful park I have ever been to and was again, amazed by his architecture.

Lunch time. We headed to the beach area where there are a lot of well priced restaurants with delicious seafood and needless to say, I ate well. We then went to one of the best view points in Barcelona where the 1992 Olympic stadium is and then toured the gothic quarter which contains buildings from the Roman times. After so many sights in one day, we were exhauste., I went to the hotel to take a 30 minute nap before I was going to meet up with a Spanish friend who I had met in Madrid that lives in Barcelona. She took me up to Mount Tibidabo. The mountain overlooked Barcelona and the bar we were at had an amazing view of the city at night. Despite the 9 euro drink, the place was great. My poor amiga had to work at 7 am so around 2am she dropped me off at the hotel where I was cordially greeted by some USD students who were about to go out to a club. “Sure, I’ll go.” We went to the worst club I have ever been to, and 15 euro and a really sticky floor later we left the club to venture out to seek the best that Barcelona nightlife had to offer. We found Opium. After getting really high… just kidding. (It’s a club.) Almost as good as the night club we went to Wednesday in Madrid. We got home around 6 am and I woke up again around 8am to catch the bus to Monserrat. Monserrat is a beautiful mountain outside of Barcelona where the Virgin Mary appeared to shepards. The air was cool and crisp, the view was truly outstanding and this definitely stood out as one of my favorite places on my trip to Barcelona.

After we got back to the city I went to the Picasso musuem. Jealous? You should be. I looked at Picasso paintings, drawings, and sculptures all afternoon.

That night we had a little botellon on the beach half because of all of the money spent the night before and half because of the broken shoe of a person who will remain nameless. On the way home on Sunday we stopped off at a Cava producer to take a tour and sip some Cava. (Spanish champagne) T’was delish and the ride home wasn’t half as bad as the way there. I have less than two days left in Madrid, and it has been an incredible experience to say the least.

Look for a new post wrapping up my thoughts on the entire trip in a couple of days.

Pictures of Barcelona

Pictures of Madrid (look for the one of me and the Senora)

Pictures of Modern Art in the Reina Sofia (There are a few Picasso's, Dali's, and some other really interesting stuff in here)

Couples making out in the metro: 82

Yours truly and my favorite,

Tony Kroschewsky

La Discoteca and my trip to Barcelona PART I

My deepest apologies for the length of time in between posts, I know many of you were finding yourselves destitute without a new post in over a week. I would like to say that I just didn’t have time, but in all reality nothing very interesting or new happened before I went to Barcelona for the weekend. Maybe it’s because I adjusted to my environment and running from prostitutes is simply a daily occurrence.

There will be two parts to this blog due to the recent plethora of what I like to call “blogworthy” occurrences. (Look for the next one in a day or two)

Due to the large amounts of complaints sent to my website designer and personal assistant, there will be bullet points from now on.

· La Discoteca

· The best bus ride of my life

Wednesday night before I left for Barcelona I was cordially invited by some gracious and enjoyable University of San Diego students to attend a premiere nightclub in Madrid (David Beckham used to frequent the place). Now I know what you are thinking, and yes, I know it’s against my policy to be around Americans, but these ones are nice and like to have fun so I went. We met at a certain Metro stop that was supposedly very close to the club. Being the first to arrive I decided to look for it to make things a little easier for when everyone else got there. In the process I met an immigrant from Ecuador who was trying to help me find it and he politely told me that if I am in Spain studying Spanish, I need to start studying something else. Whatever. I never found the club, but I found my friends and after we wandered around for a few more minutes we took a 20 minute cab ride to the club. At that point I declared that I am through with Google Maps and am currently trying MapQuest, but I would really like to find something with a little more to offer. We got out of the cab to see a few large men in suits guarding the door, and a Ferrari and a Lamborghini right outside; needless to say I didn’t think we would get in. We were lucky, had a lot of fun, and only got a couple of hours of sleep before class.

We departed for Barcelona on a charter bus full of people from my program at 1:30pm, and didn’t arrive until 11:30pm. Do I really need to say more? Okay, I will elaborate. The first hour was great, a little conversation, a little nap, and next thing I know we were stopping for lunch. Lunch was fantastic, everyone got burgers and I ate the delicious lunch my Señora packed for me. (Two sandwiches with jamon iberico and queso manchego, a peach, a whole package of cookies, and a juice box) After we got back on the bus is when things started to get a little sour. The “cool kids” behind me decided it would be a good idea to buy a bottle of whisky and then even a better idea to finish it in thirty minutes. Then a poor girl on our bus became deathly ill and vomited for the next nine hours.

To her credit, she made it in the bag every single time. Because of the girl’s sickness we made a stop every thirty minutes to an hour, this thus enabled the “cool kids” behind me to restock up on their alcohol supply. They became louder and more obnoxious by the second. This didn’t bode well for my plan of sleeping on the bus. By the time we arrived, checked in, and ate it was 1:30 am. I decided to call it a night to save up my energy for the next two days and nights of seeing the entire city of Barcelona and not really sleeping.

To be continued…

Here are the pictures from Barcelona.

Couples making out in the metro: 77

Yours truly and my favorite,

Tony Kroschewsky

Sorry to say that I have been very busy and have not had time to compose a new piece about my experiences. I am leaving for Barcelona in the morning and will be back on Sunday night, I can promise you there will be a new semi-interesting post by Monday at the very latest.

Here are some new pictures from around Madrid.

Couples making out in the metro: 64

Yours truly and my favorite,

Tony Kroschewsky

Two weeks left and some other semi-interesting things

Well, I got my mid-terms back and I made B’s on both of them. You know what that means? I will drink a bottle of red wine the night before every major exam for the rest of my academic career.

· This blog isn’t that long

· So I am not going to give bullet points

· If you have a problem with this

· Please send all complaints to ddwiggins88@gmail.com

It’s so hard to believe that another week has gone by and I only have two left, nevertheless I still have TWO WEEKS left and plan on making the most out of them. The first three weeks I was here I saw so many places, buildings, castles, prostitutes etc (most of them you can find in previous posts). These last three weeks I have decided to do things a little different. I have seen the sites, I love the sites and I have learned so much from them, but on Monday I started seeing something 100 times better. I started seeing the people.

As I have previously mentioned in earlier blogs I started the easiest job in the world on Monday (which is saying a lot looking at my previous work history: lifeguard, crossing guard, and an economics tutor where nobody even shows up for help). I go eat lunch and dinner for free with Spanish college students and speak English to them. That’s it. My first meal was rather… awkward. Why? Nobody told the students in the program that there would be people like me to speak English with them at meals. I sat with these girls who had no idea why I was speaking English with them, and didn’t want to speak English because they just spent 5 hours in a classroom learning it and were sick of it.

Things finally got better at Dinner when I met some guys who maybe didn’t care about speaking English, but cared about the other American girls I came with and wanted to use me to get to them. After dinner and some good conversation I kept hanging out with the Spanish guys because they were nice… and so I could use them to get to the Spanish girls. My plan has been more successful than theirs. Since then I have just picked the group of people that are the most fascinated with the fact that I am American and have hung out with them.They are the nicest and most genuine people I have ever met, (besides myself) and I think that I might want to bring one or two home with me to replace some of my friends in Texas. (Dustin Dwiggins and Sidney Moore, sorry but you are on the bottom of the list. Better luck next year.)

Thursday night there was a party at a karaoke bar with the program. I told myself that there would only be one song that I would sing: Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue by Toby Keith (also known as the boot in your ass song) in honor of the 4^th of July (That’s American Independence Day). Fortunately they didn’t have it, but the coordinator of the program did find it necessary to get on stage and sing every song with whoever was singing (whether they were from the program or not). I would like to go into more details about the craziness of this woman right now, but instead I am starting a new Blog solely based on the things she does and says that makes everyone else feel embarrassed for her.

Last weekend I went to El Rastro (the biggest flea market in Europe) to get some screaming deals on cheaply made merchandise, stolen goods, and old cassettes. If you have ever had anything stolen in Madrid, please tell me because I am going back this Sunday and I can look for it.

Later that day I went to a Bullfight where I saw four bulls fall at the hands of the matadors and one matador fall at the horns of a bull. Yeah, that’s right one of the bulls got a little revenge for himself and all of his friends. The matador was hit by the bull and then driven into the ground for a good twenty seconds before the other torreros were there to distract the bull. I didn’t think the guy was going to be able to get up or even be alive, but he proved me wrong. He was helped to his feet, brushed himself off, reached for his red cape, and went back at it. His pants were torn so everyone could see his undies, he had a substantial amount of blood coming out if his leg, and he wasn’t wearing shoes (the bull literally knocked him out of his shoes), but he was still going to kill that bull… and he did.

Couples making out in the metro: 47

Yours truly and my favorite,

Tony Kroschewsky

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