Uno, do(s), tres, cuatro

Thursday morning was a tiring one in class, and the looming Friday exam was getting to us. Thursday night was the Fiesta of the Month for Sampere, which meant that “Ojos Negros” (a bar) would close for business and only cater for us. Three hours of endless free sangria and cerveza. It was quite fun just sitting around and talking to all the different people who were there (those most I knew already since I have class with them or I know them through someone else). One of my professors that I had from the first week was there (as a refresher, I had two male teachers my first week: Angel and Abel), the one I have a teacher crush on. My friend Michelle jokingly said that by the end of the night I had to hook up with him. That obviously wasn’t going to happen, but it was funny how when he left she said “Hey! He left without you! What a horrible date he is!” Hahaha. After that Tema and I went home early to study for out exam the next morning and get a good night’s rest.

The day of the exam, Friday, had come. Our professors were convinced that we’d pass, but I of course freaking out thought I’d fail. There were two parts: a written and an oral. The written was about 4 pages of exercises asking you to complete sentences or write phrases using the given grammar rule. This time I made sure to remember each rule and not just fill in everything by how it sounds (well, I still did it by how it sounded, but I checked it over by what the rule said). The oral section was my favorite and everyone else’s least. We had to sit in a room with one of our professors and she’d ask us questions and we answer them. So we talked about the movie we had seen in class (“Otro lado de la cama”) and what consejos we’d give each personaje in the movie (using the correct subjuntivo rule of course). We also had to talk about the last wedding we attended using the correct form of the past tense (as if I didn’t know that already). Naturally I aced the oral part but was scared I had flunked the written. Thankfully, I didn’t. I only missed 2 things on the written and got an almost perfect score. Thus, I passed the exam and got to move on to the next level (which hopefully I will actually learn something in).

Friday was our friend Ashley’s last day in Madrid, so we went to see the Plaza de los Toros where all the bullfights take place in Madrid. We couldn’t go inside, but it was pretty impressive from the outside. We also had a little bit of fun with the fact that we were outside a bull-ring. Ashley decided to be a matador and me a bull. We had a fight (fortunately documented by the other girls). I lost (sadly). We then went souvenir shopping near Sol/Opera. Up until then, I had not bought a single thing, for myself or for anyone else. And so, I went on a shopping binge buying my loved ones silly and useless things that have something relating to Madrid on them. [Pausa: Funny Story—up until Friday, I had been using a Movistar bag as my “school bag”, to carry all my books and lunch and such since my purse is too small to hold it all. The bag ripped in half and everything fell out of my bag in the middle of this store we were in. As fate had it, they had these giant purses on sale for about 8 euros each. It’s like God told me it was time to get an actual bag and stop carrying the stupid cellphone bag around. It was fate. Un-Pausa]. After wondering around Madrid for a few hours, Tema and I headed home for some dinner and to get ready for out night out.

Michelle and Alejandro had hit it off, and so we decided to go out as a group (her friends and his) for some tapas, drink, and some fun. And so Michelle, Steph, Tema and I went out with Alejandro and his friends: Louis, Jesus, Sergio, Javi, Diego, and another one who I actually never met. First we went to a Cuban restaurant and had some tapas (which included tostone. They were quite good but nothing like the ones my mommy makes) and some wine. It was a bit awkward at first because for some reason we arranged ourselves with girls on one side and guys on the other. But it got better as time went by. Afterwards we headed to the bar/club called Sol y Sombra (Tema and I had been there once before, on our first adventure out into Madrid). It was PACKED. But it was so much fun. We had some drinks, danced a lot, and just had a good time with some good people. We girls had planned for this to be an early night because we had a trip to Segovia the next morning, but we were having too good of a time to take the metro home. So we decided to take taxis home once the bar closed. So 3 AM comes around, the bar closes and we decide to tell the boys that it’s time for us to go home, but they won’t have any of it. They want to go to another club that’s pretty far away. How do they convince us to go? They offer to pay for the cab rides, and drive us home whenever we want (Louis has a coche). How could we give up an opportunity like that? And so we head off to another club called Keeper where all the music was techno (just for you Adam, just for you). After another two hours of hanging out, the girls and I decided that it’s time to head home. And so we did, in Louis car as promised. It was a sad parting because all the guys were really nice and fun (we didn’t pay for a thing that night! All food and drinks were paid by the guys. They all also dance. Javi is definitely the best one out of all of them) but we had to go home take showers and take our naps before our journey to Segovia.