Bit of this, bit of that...

Popped along to El Ser Creativo this morning- fecking brilliant, so it was!


It's a congress and a conference of the world's most brilliant minds- it's literal translation is The Creative Being. It was so interesting hearing what these people had to say about today's topic- The Power of Freedom. The key speakers featured Wang Xiaoping, Bernard Henri-Lévy, Dambisa Moyo and Shirin Ebadi. It was actually quite humbling to be in the same room as these people!


El Ser Creativo invites celebrated minds from all over the globe to come to the conference and to speak about the proposed topic for 21 minutes (the average time that the human brain can concentrate for). I have to say I was a little bit miffed during the first half of the conference because I slept awfully last night and accidentally fell asleep for a few minutes of it...


Dambisa Moyo is absolutely inspirational! I wish she could run for Irish president... She'd be a bit more with it than Dana. I can understand her African accent better than I can understand Dana too!


I also got some pretty notebooks which is always a plus!

You can never have too many!

I finally got around to taking my photos with black&white film for Photography class. We're going to start developing them in class today- let's hope there's at least one decent photo in the lot of them! 

Maybe something like this one...

On another note, completely unrelated to anything else... 

I walked through a sprinkler today to feel rain . . . 

It felt like walking through a rainbow . . .

A few thoughts...

I freakin' love Irish soda bread. I had a major craving for it over the last few days, couldn't buy it anywhere so I headed out last night and after looking in 9 different shops, I finally had my ingredients. Apparently the Spanish don't use brown flour...? I made a massive loaf and I tasted home. I even woke up extra early this morning so that I'd have time to have a cupán té with a hunk of bread!


I walked Madrid today to find a cheap, second hand copy of Wuthering Heights. I didn't find it, but what I did find was an amazing little bar with a second hand bookshop. You can sit and read or swap your own books for their books! Anywhere with beer and books has my vote. They didn't have what I was looking for so I settled for Jane Austen's Emma instead.

I also gave up my job in the Irish bar today so I can focus on giving English lessons to children. Much more fun and at €20 an hour you can't really argue with that! If anyone has any ideas for games or lesson plans they'd be much appreciated!

My roommate read a rather interesting article on a Romanian website today. I've taken the liberty of translating it using Google Chrome's built in translator so you can have the pleasure of reading it. Geddit?? Pleasure?? Onion?? NO???.....

At least it was a red onion. It shows that she has more expensive taste...


We got a phone call from the landlord today to say that she had recieved a complaint about noise coming from the apartment last night. Yasmin was sleeping, I was studying and Lucian was talking quietly on Skype. Our apartment was actually constructed with paper. The landlord told us that from now on, if we want to talk, we have to do it in the sitting room with all the doors closed.
I wouldn't mind but I often feel like banging on the neighbours' wall! Who starts DIY at 6am?? Crazy Spaniards! That's who!


On another note...

I'm coming home for Hallowe'en!

Just the slightest bit excited!

Right bus... Wrong direction...

Ok, so I still haven't gotten my head around the public transport system...

For the last few weeks I have been trying to figure out how to get home from work in the bar at night. Once the Metro finishes at 1:30am, the public transport system can be a no man's land- unless you want to pay €15 for a taxi! For weeks I had bar staff suggesting different bus numbers at me until I finally decided on the L5. 

I was dead proud of myself after finally finding the bus stop. I checked the route on the notice board and everything! I even asked if it was the stop for the L5- and it was! 

I got on the bus and enjoyed the view of the city. For the first time in ages I was getting to see the city from above the ground! 

Over an hour passed and I still hadn't recognised any of the sights. Eventually the bus pulled up in the middle of nowhere and everyone got out. I headed up to the driver and asked where we were. When I told him I wanted Carabanchel he laughed at me. 

He made me get off the bus and get back on and pay again! I had to wait on the bus for half on hour while he got up and took a piss against the side of the bus. 

Eventually we headed back in the direction of Carabanchel. I learned that bus seats are extremely slippery. I fell asleep about 5 times and once I fell off the seat onto the floor when he braked suddenly. 

I finished work at 2 and got home after 5am. Google maps says it's a 17minute drive.

If you want to grab public transport in Madrid, know which direction you're heading in!

Culture Shock: Adjustment Phase?

According to the internationally renowned source of information Wikipedia, Culture Shock is an actual thing!

Apparently the first phase, known as the Honeymoon Phase is the period during which everything smells like roses. Sounds like my first week in the country. I bloody loved it. 

Then came the Negotiation Phase. This one isn't as nice. It's when you realise, "Shit, what am I doing here?"

After that comes the Adjustment Phase where you get yourself into a routine and begin to think that you can cope- according to Wikipedia, this phase normally comes after about 6-12 months. Could it be that I am in this zone already? I was always a quick one!

Soon after the Adjustment Phase comes the Mastery Phase- Not quite there yet but I plan on it!

Like I said, the first few weeks were horrible (that's Spanish for horrible) but I'm beginning to feel a bit more relaxed now. The last time that Jack left to go back to Ireland, I wanted to get on the plane after him and go home, but I had a bit of a problem getting past security... 

He came over to visit again on the 4th October and I had the most fantastic week with him. I was dreading saying goodbye, but it was a bit easier than the first time- probably because I was on the way to college and I had to hop off the Metro while he stayed on to head to the airport and I didn't actually realise he was gone for a few hours! I only cried like a little waterfall instead of Niagra this time!

As I'm writing this, I'm sitting in the sun in the courtyard of the university, smelling the lovely bush (it smells like lavender but it's not lavender...) and listening to the little green parrots squawking in the tree above me. I could get used to this- if it was in Ireland!

Headed to the Casa de Campo zoo last Sunday. It was fantastic- a must see if you're in Madrid. The animals made me happy. The elephants made me sad. Most of the enclocures are pretty impressive and spacious but the elephants just look miserable in theirs. I'd love to take them home and look after them but I don't know how to get them up the stairs. 

Isn't this the most beautiful baby gorilla you have ever seen?

Hi!

Speaking of animals, I've now decided to move onto a more topical and important subject. We all know how exciting it is to adopt a new pet, but they can often be more work than we anticipated. If you are looking for hard work, forget about adopting a pet and instead...

ADOPT AN ERASMUS!

Some jumbled up thoughts...

Such a crazy few days that I think it would be better to start at the most recent events and work my way back...

4/10/2011- Tuesday

Even without anything that happened this morning (it's not even 1pm yet) today was already due to be a bit of a crazy day. Daddy's going in for his operation at some time today (don't know the time so I'm going a little bit crazy here. Maybe it's better not to know it?) so they can take his kidney. 

I always wondered, what happens after you have a bit removed? What do they do with it? Is there a crazy person searching the bins for human parts in order to recreate a Franken-style monster? 

On top of that, Jack's finally arriving tonight for a week... I've been counting down the days and I can't wait to see him again!

When I left my apartment at 9:20am my head was a little all over the place, worrying about the operation but also excited about seeing Jack- or at least it was until I saw the police car parked outside my front door. 

I walked around the corner (only a few metres from the front door) and saw a crowd gathering, 5 ambulances and 3 police cars. Outside the 'Los Guerrilleros' shoe shop, the police were removing a police tent and covering a body with a foil blanket. I stopped to ask a few people what was going on, but no one seemed to know. A few minutes later I kept walking and nearly stepped in a pool of blood that was left uncovered. I've spent the last 3 hours asking people and checking the news to see what happened- but no one seems to know anything. There's nothing on the news either. If anyone hears anything, please let me know because it's a little bit unnerving to see a dead body almost on your doorstep. 

03/10/2011- Monday

Yesterday morning I was running late for college, ran from the Metro to class and arrived at 3 minutes past 12. There was no one there. Checked the timetable and realised I was half an hour early. Decided to relax and get my emails and stuff sorted before class. At 12:40 there was still no one. I went to the concierge's office and asked if I was in the right room. Turns out I was. Gave up and went outside. Met a girl from the class (quite remarkable since there are only 4 of us in the whole class!) and she told me that we don't have class on a Monday anymore. Great. Went to the library to get work done. Internet wasn't working. Silly HP. Eventually got it sorted 4 hours later by a technician, and then a few minutes later got a message saying that my fan is basically dying. Now my WLAN keeps turning itself off. Grrr.

Last night, met up with Esther in Sol and had a fantastic evening- finally got to see how beautiful Madrid is at night! Yas, Jack and Dan, you're all in for a treat tonight!

02/10/2011- Saturday

Ok, I know I skipped Sunday but Sunday wouldn't make any sense without Saturday. On Friday night before I went to bed I closed the shutters in my room so there was absolutely no light whatsoever. The following morning I woke up a few times, saw it was still dark and went back to sleep- completely forgetting that the shutters were closed! I got a text at 1:30pm and woke up raging that someone was texting me in the middle of the night- I was so confused when my phone said 1:30pm! I was completely disorientated for the rest of the day when I got to work! 

That evening (after a crazy day at work) myself and Yas headed out to see Des Bishop gigging in Teatro Alfi! (Excitement!)

On the way in a guy said he had two free tickets and just gave them to us- noice! Never laughed so much in my life as I did during the gig. We ended up meeting with Des afterwards and chatted for a while- turned out he was looking for somewhere to watch the Irish rugby match so we told him about the James Joyce...

02/10/2011- Sunday

... where he popped in for breakfast the next day! 

Sunday was crazy. Absolutely crazy. 

I didn't realise 24 men on a stag-do could be so much hard work. 

A groups of Scottish guys arrived and spent a few hours outside drinking- until one of them asked if they could have the private function room. The boss agreed on the condition that they put on their shirts if they were coming into the bar. 

As they were walking through the bar to the back room, I told them they had to put their shirts on... When I walked into the room a few minutes later (carrying 41 glasses of beer...) every single one of them was sitting there without a shirt and a guy in a pair of Speedos jumped up and hugged me. 

The noise from the room got louder and they got messier. The boss agreed to give them 10 baskets of chips for free as long as they didn't leave the room without any clothes on.

A few minutes later I walked in and there was a naked man doing handstands in the middle of the room- or at least he was until he slipped in beer and landed sprawled on the floor as naked as the day he was born. 

A few minutes after that, I went in and they had lined up the tables in a row and had covered them in olive oil... and were sliding along them naked. They then realised that I was finished my shift (I told them that since I was finished, I didn't care how much of a mess they made) and then I was set upon by naked, oily, beer soaked men asking me to have a few drinks with them. That was grand until they started hugging me. I swear I actually stuck to them. Beer, sweat and olive oil. Not a nice combination.