A very eventful day to break my tired streak

Woke up early Friday morning (7:30) because Stacey and I had our weekly tutoria session for our lit. classes. I had a packed day ahead of me so it took me a little longer to get ready. I was also nauceous because I passed out so early the previous night before giving my food a chance to settle. I hate the Spanish eating schedule sometimes...why do we have to eat dinner so damn late?? We then walked to the center in the gloom, although it was warm out and the sun was breaking a bit. We got there by 9:10 in time for 2 wonderful hours of Jorge. This week the tutorias actually had students in them so it wasn't nearly as exciting as last week's private session. 9-10 was Teatro and 10-11 was Lope which were both very informative and helpful. Jorge is actually a really good tutor--he's very clear and easy to comprehend and helpful. And sexy. Yeah I said it. After tutoria I was starving and planned to eat my bocadillos. However, when I walked into the computer room I noticed a huge box full of Otis Spunkenmeyer muffins and cookies with a sign saying that they were for us. They had been sent by a guy from Cornell who was here last semester whose father just happens to be the CEO of Otis Spunkmeyer. Yeah, for real. So I got a muffin to hold me over until later...yay! The sugar from the muffin was definitely starting to help my tired streak and calmed my nausea a bit. I had a break from 11-2 in which I planned to walk to Campana (the famous bakery) to order Stacey and Jessica a birthday cake. The sun had begun to peek out so I told Stacey that I was just going to take a walk and enjoy the sun. To many that may sound like a pretty lame cover-up, but I've taken many random walks here simply because it is nice out, so this wouldn't seem like a rare occasion to Stacey. I walked down calle Sierpes, the main shopping district/street to Campana where the nice older man behind the counter gave me info on how to order a cake. For some reason my Spanish speaking and listening were not working and it was a struggle of a conversation. He told me to order it either Friday or Saturday and it'd be ready for me Monday night, just to know what size and flavor and to write it down. I should have ordered it right then and there but I was just all off and confused so I just left. I'm weird sometimes. So that meant that I'd have to come back...why do I space out and make illogical choices sometimes? I still had time to spare so I walked down Sierpes and went into a couple of stores such as H&M and stuff. Ugh, I wish I had money, I could use some better Spring apparel. I had to literally pull myself out of H&M before getting even halfway into the store because I just love all of the clothing that they carry and it was starting to depress me. Haha, oh me. There's also a plaza near Sierpes that has these little cheap market stands, mostly hippie/bohemian stuff is sold there. I found this headband that I want and it was cheap. But I'm being extremely cheap because I anticipated spending a lot of money the next week for Stacey's bday. After a good hour and a half of walking I returned to the center and went online and such. Then I had Lope 2-3 which, as always, was boring though not as excrutiating as the previous day. There was barely anyone in class that day because the big end-of-studies botellon (outdoor drinking party) for Spanish students had been moved to this Friday since it had rained so much the week before. Our Lope prof. gave this whole rant on how stupid the botellon is and how it is a terrible idea. Haha, oh generational gaps. Then during the hour break before Teatro we returned to the center where I just sat and did some reading and ate some of my lunch. Then we had Teatro 4-5 which was cool, the author of the next play we're reading, Arlt, sounds like a really cool guy. Camacho presented all of his works and what they depict and such. So crazy and avant-garde, very surrealist and psychoanalytic...I was honestly getting excited to read his work. Camacho also made a comment about the big botellon--he said he hope that people were enjoying themselves and sometimes it's a good idea to let loose. Gotta love the Camacho! I then had another hour break while everyone else went back to their homes. Damn 6-8. On the break I walked around the barrio Santa Cruz which is the older district of Sevilla that has the most history and character. I went over there because I had looked up fun things to do for the night online since it was one of our first weekends that we'd all be in Sevilla at once...so we wanted to do something fun and Sevilla-like. I found a teteria (tea house) that has live bellydancing on Friday nights and it's located in Santa Cruz. I spent a long time searching for it to no avail. I'd just have to look it up on Mapquest later or something. However, it had turned into a gorgeous afternoon, and I had never explored Santa Cruz...it's really awesome there! I need to return and just have a tapa or a drink outside because it's a pretty perfect area for that, AND it's right in the view of the Cathedral and the Alcazar. Cool, dude. I then walked back to the University for my 6-8 Iconografia. All day the U. had been pretty quiet since most students were at the big botellon. Come 6 o'clock the U. was basically deserted. So weird! Everyone was in Iconografia, however, since the majority of the class is adults. Class went well, he actually lectured longer (we started at 6:15 which is early for him and went until 7:30. Crazy). He lectured for longer because we were learning about what he said is "the most important iconography in all of art history" and that would be the crucifix. I learned about different depictions of the cross and Christ's positions on the cross and how those indicate something about where they were made or something. I don't know. On Friday during one of my breaks I talked to Pepe about my art history tutors since I hadn't heard anything and we set up Monday tutoring sessions. Good. I'm a bit lost in my art history courses, honestly. Oof. After class I headed straight back towards Sierpes to order a cake from Campana. Sierpes was PACKED. I mean, it took me twice as long to get there because not only were there a buttload of people, but there were all of these street performers that people kept stopping to watch. There was one really creepy street performer who had weird carnival music and trippy marionette shows. I was not a fan, creeeeeeepy. I finally got to Campana which was loud and crowded at this point. The nice man who I had talked to earlier was so good and helpful, he actually walked out from behind the counter so we could interact closer and clearer. He really helped out a lot, he gave me lots of info and ideas. I ordered a cake of trufa (truffle) which will basically be a chocolate overload. And it's going to have writing saying "Feliz Cumpleanos". He offered to put names on it, but Stacey's name is the most challenging thing for people to pronounce and spell here that I just said it wasn't worth it. Here's what's funny about people saying Stacey's name here, they all call her "Eh-Stacey" because there are no Spanish words that start with "ST". For example, the Spanish word for "station" is "ESTacion" and the word for "stupid" is "ESTupido", etc. So they don't have the actual capacity to say words that start with "ST" without adding an "Eh" sound in front of it. How weird is that? It's just like how when I speak Spanish I can't roll my "rr" because we don't have that sound in English so I'm pretty incapable of doing it. It's just so funny here because it seems so easy and mindless to say words that start with an "ST". Anyways, I ordered the cake and it would be ready for me to pick up at 5:30 on Monday. Yay! I then walked through the crowded street of Sierpes. I was starving so I picked up a manzana at McDonalds...the line was so long it took forever just to get one apple. Ugh. I finally got home at 8:30. Stacey suspected that I was up to something since I always get out of Iconografia early. I told her that my prof. actually lectured for the first time since we were learning about "the most important iconography of art history", and that there was a line at McDonalds. All true, except I just omitted one little detail, hehe. This is why it's taken me awhile to publish this post because I didn't want to give away my secret errands. Before dinner Stacey and I got ready for the night since we had made plans to meet up with Melissa and Sarah at 10:15 to go to the teteria. I looked on my Sevilla map and found it...it's right near Alfalfa, so that would be perfect: teteria for bellydancing, then cheap drinking and shenanigans at Alfalfa later. Dinner was SOOOOOO good that night! It also helped kick my tiredness because it was full of none other than sugar. We had an amaaaaaazing empanada de bacalao (literally the best one she's made) that had lots of sugar on top and lots of raisins. Mmmmm. It was served with a simple green salad, and then for dessert we had the trufos!! How perfect of a dinner. We then got ready and headed out at 10. We met up with Sarah a block from our apt. since she lives just down the street. Her senora was out of town for the weekend so she had Leah (from Cornell) over for dinner that night. They were both drunk since they had gone to the big botellon that day. Haha. We then walked and met up with Melissa, Katie, Alyssa, and Alexi in Plaza de Cuba. This was turning into a major groupo event! We then walked to the Starbucks next to the Cathedral and met up with Jessica. THEN we ran into Kate (from Penn) and her boyfriend and mom who were out celebrating her bday (which actually wasn't until midnight). We talked for awhile and invited Kate and her bf out with us. It really WAS becoming a group event! It was a struggle finding the teteria on the small windy medieval streets, and the big group of people was not helping the situation. After some frustration we finally found it. It was really cute! We figured out that the basement was where the action was. We got down there and it's like straight out of Aladdin...so cool! Great decoration...lots of close-to-ground seating and couches, and ambient lighting. There were a lot of Americans there, go figure. We found this large couch area that was inhabited by a small group of Spanish people so we sat down, squished, and shared. Jessica knocked over and shattered one of their beers. She felt so terrible and offered to buy another one, but they were so cool about it and said that it was no big deal and not to worry about it. It was actually kind of funny. It was very crowded so it took awhile to be served. Finally we all ordered beers and Alexi ordered a shisha (hookah). The hookah came, and it was great--Alexi chose apple mango which was a very good choice, I must say. Only Alexi, Alyssa, Sarah, Katie (it was her first hookah!), and I smoked it. Finally at around midnight the first belly dancer performed. She was not too great, actually, but it was really fun to be in such an awesome environment watching bellydancing in general. I had never seen bellydancing live before! She only performed one song and then disappeared into the bathroom forever. The lights came back on. We all thought that she was changing costumes, but she was gone for almost a half an hour. By then I was loopy from the hookah and a bit drunk from the beer and the water bottle of vodka that I had packed (my being cheap and avoiding paying money for liquor, gotta love the budget). Soon she performed another number with some sort of vase and a new costume. It was cool. Then another bellydancer performed who was a bit better and looked more authentic (she was taller and chubbier, the first dancer was really short and skinny). All in all it was a lot of fun and a great cultural experience. I really enjoyed that teteria a lot and would LOVE to return. Yay for taking advantage of Sevilla! After the teteria we walked 5 minutes over to Alfalfa where I proceeded to get, well, pretty effing drunk. What can I say, it had been awhile, hehe. First we went to Robotica, the bar that serves the huge 3euro beers. I didn't want to drink all that beer, so Melissa and I opted for shots. Robotica has a humongous shot menu, and they're all pretty cheap. We decided on the "Tom Cruise" shot because, well, it's called Tom Cruise. And Tom Cruise sucks...so what better way to commemorate his suckiness than taking a chupito (which literally means a little thing to suck when translated into English). I can't remember what's in it, but I do remember it being citrusy. Soon we ended up across the street taking tequila shots. Then we ran into this kid who Melissa knows. His name is Joey and he goes to Michigan but is here on another program. I found out that he and his friends are all living in my apartment building next year! Awesome, yayyyy apartment friends! He seems like really cool, fun kid so I was now developing a nice community for next year already. Niiiiiice. Stacey, Jessica, and Katie all went and bought pizzas for themselves and then left around 3ish. Melissa and I decided to stay and hang out a bit longer. Then we went and got 2 more shots of tequila. Yeah, I was a gonner. We just hung out and talked the 3 of us, at points other people in Joey's program, and then, at like 4am, to his program director who is 26. Haha. At around 4:30 Melissa and I walked back to los Remedios. On the walk home all of these Spanish men kept riding by on their motos yelling and whistling and hooting at us. When I get drunk I practice no discresion and I would angrily yell back at them to shut the hell up and that they suck and stuff like that. One guy drove right up alongside me and kept pestering me to give him a kiss. WTF???? I kept saying no, very firmly and honestly rudely. He kept asking why and I just kept saying "No tengo ganas!" ("I don't want to!"). Then he drives up on the sidewalk, cuts me off and asks me for a kiss and I said no and tried to push past him. Then he grabbed my boob. Like, groped me right there. I was ready to slap him across the face when Melissa whips out her mace that she had been gripping and puts it right in his face. Before she could even consider pulling the trigger he sped away. I was so fucking angry I couldn't believe it. I was violated. You see why I can't handle Spanish men??? Honestly. Pissed off and drunk we got ready to cross the bridge when I see some guy ride by on a bike and hiss at us. I yelled "Fuck off!!!" when the biker got off and was like, "Whoa there..." It was Sam from our program! Haha. I didn't even noticed I was so phased by the previous incident. I apologized profusely and we stood there and talked for a bit. It was now 5am and he was drunkenly biking home from the big botellon which is literally a 20 minute at least ride from where we were standing...and he still had another 20 to go before getting home. He told us that he had to wake up at 6:30am the next morning to go to Morrocco. What?? Sam, you idiot, haha. Then Melissa and I walked home. I don't really remember much about the walk or what we talked about...alls I know is I was in bed and passed out a little before 6am that night. Crazy Spanish nights out! It felt so good to finally be back out on the Sevilla scene again. It had been way too long! I think that my incessant tiredness that week was due to excessive boredom. I really wasn't tired at this point...I was actually out and doing things! Now I had an explanation. Thank god for eventful days/nights!