A very un-Spanish ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

OK, here goes. Twas a good day. Twas.
Woke up at 7:30, still with a sore throat, but it made no difference. I made taost for myself and encountered Maruja in the kitchen cooking and making preparations for lunch. She was cooking that Portuguese bacalao dish that I love and ate on my bday because Maria del Mar had chosen it for her birthday meal, too! As I sat with my toast Maruja walked me through the preparation of the dish, like a mother passing on a recipe to a daughter. It was so nice! It's one of the rare times that Maruja has instigated conversation with me that wasn't a complaint or correction of my habits. So awesome. And I learned how to cook the bacalao dish! It's so easy! I'm gonna make it in the States, for sure. So I learned how to connect with Maruja: over cooking! So whenver I'm home while she cooks I'm going to become her disciple. No joke. This is how I will develop a real relationship and connection. Maruja seemed really grateful for my presence and interest. After that awesome breakfast experience/learning experience I got decked out in green, and Stacey and I headed to the center for our 2 tutoring sessions for lit. This was exciting since the lit. tutor is Jorge, ya know, the beautiful center teacher who's basically the sexiest man that I've ever encountered. Oof, he's freaking gorgeous. So I was way excited for 2 hours of Jorge. We walked there and it was cloudy and almost rainy which was fine by me, it was like the weather in Ireland! Hehehe. We got to the center right as it opened at 9am, which was weird for me...I'd never been there so early. Tutoria for Teatro was first, only Stacey, Rachel, Nick, and I were there. The tutoria went very well, not only because of the beautiful specimen in front of me, but because of the immense clarification that he gave. He assured us that the exam would be very easy and told us exactly what to study and/or read, basically. Excellent; definitely eased my anxiety. Then we had a ten minute break before the next tutoria: Lope. This tutoria was the best, and ya know why? It was just Stacey and me. That's right, just Stacey, me, and Jorge for a whole hour. It was great, too, because Jorge looooves Lope's work so he was really impassioned and into teaching us. There's nothing better than a man who loves his literature. Tutoria ended at 11, then Jorge was looking for Melissa for her tutoria with him for her Cervantes class. But Melissa didn't show up, so Stacey and I got an extra hour with Jorge! And this time we just sat there while Jorge read Lope's love poetry. That's right, Jorge read us love poetry for an hour. That's 2 full hours of Jorge plus a bonus love poetry hour. I was kind of lost in it all, not gonna lie. Mmmmm, Jorge. After those lovely few hours I met up with Katie in the computer room to walk to Plaza de armas to buy our bus tickets to Madrid (we're flying to Amsterdam out of Madrid...cheaper). It was still cloudy and dreary, but not cold. We bought our tickets very quickly--I had the most successful Spanish interaction I've had since I've been here--and we were off. Success. We walked home all excited about how we are going to Amsterdam in 3 weeks! Since we got our tickets so quickly and Katie didn't have to be at work until 1, we decided to start drinking. So we did it the easy way plus doing something that I've always wanted to do: we got beers from McDonalds. Yup, beer at McDonalds. You can get medium or large. Oh yeah, we got larges, 1.90euro each. We then sat on the steps in front of the center and chugged our cervezas grandes from McDonalds. The beer is actually not that bad! It seems fitting to start out my St. Patrick's Day drinking at McDonald's, I mean, McDonald is an Irish name, yeah? As we were sitting outside I reached in my coat pocket to grab my cell phone. I always keep my cell in a pocket since, following Melissa's purse theft in Granada, I don't keep any valuables in my purse. I definitely had put my phone in my pocket, but it wasn't there. There was just no explanation for this unless I had really forgotten to take my phone, although I really felt like I had brought it with me. This was cause to worry. Of all the things, losing my cell phone was not on my list of things to happen. Ugh. Well, whatever, I just hoped that it was at home. After I finished the beer I was a little bit drunk since I drank it on a pretty empty stomach. I went up to the center which was quite surreal when a bit under the influence. I met up with Stacey and we began to walk home. She proposed the idea of stopping at Madigan's on the way home for Car Bombs. Um, yeah, must she even ask? On the bridge we found Melissa finishing her morning run and heading home. We talked her into grabbing a drink with us. We got to Madigan's which was pretty decked out with green Guinness posters, though the bar itself was pretty empty. The Guinness posters were actually a St. Patrick's Day promotion: buy 2 pints of Guinness and get a free St. Patrick's Day jester hat. Um, sign me up! First we ordered 3 car bombs, which the Spanish bartender didn't understand (she didn't know what it was). So we just ordered 3 half pints of Guinness, 3 shots of Jameson, then 3 shots of Bailey's. The bartender was still a bit confused and she only gave us 2 sets of each, so we just decided to split the 2 between the 3 of us and spare her of more confusion. So we made our own Car Bombs. Hehe. But they were delicious nonetheless. Then Melissa left to shower and such so Stacey and I stayed to drink more. We asked the bartender if we ordered 2 more half pints of Guinness and combined that with the 2 half pints we had before that would count as 2 full pints and we could get a hat. She gave us a strange look, thought about it, and said OK. Then she came back with two half pints and then a full pint. She misunderstood me again! I felt so badly, I was already pretty drunk so I had to ask her to take the full pint back. I apologized profusely, she was a trooper, it was all good. I got through about a fourth of my beer and was borderline wasted I was so drunk which was bad news since we had to be home for Maria del Mar's birthday lunch in a half an hour. Hahaha. So Miss Stacey, less drunk than I, helped me out and drank the rest of my beer plus hers. The bartender couldn't find the Guinness hats, so she gave us a coupon to come back and get one later. Then we walked home in the rain which had just started. We got home around 2:30 in a drunken daze. I was very, very drunk. This would be funny. Before lunch I quickly got my things ready for the evening. Maria del Mar's birthday lunch then began which, let me tell ya, supplied me with the best drunken munchies that I've ever eaten. I should mention that we were lucky that Lope was cancelled that day so we could be home for Maria del Mar's lunch without missing class. Yay! For we ate Maruja's infamous Portuguese bacalao dish and a cream puree soup. Then for dessert we had the same tarta that I had for my birthday! AMAZING. Such a great meal! I inhaled it. It sobered me up some, so that was good. Hehe. Yeah, it was turning out to be a good St. Patty's already despite the fact that my phone was definitely MIA (it was not at home). Yeah, I think that I may have been pick-pocketed or something. There is just no explanation. Stacey tried calling it, but it went straight to my voicemail meaning the phone was off. That's good, though, cuz since the phone is off no one can use it because you have to enter a PIN to turn it on. Oy. We said our farewells to Maria del Mar as she was going home for the weekend for her bday. We wished her a very happy 28th, and then Stacey and I were off to begin our crazy day/night. We walked outside and it was POURING rain! I mean, reeeeeally pouring. We met up with Melissa in la Plaza de Cuba so we could go to Teatro. We first stopped at the center, soaking wet, miserable, and beginning to sober up a bit (although not completely in the least). It was raining so hard and we were so wet and semi-drunk that we just decided to skip Teatro. Whatever, I went to tutoria so missing a Teatro every once in a blue moon won't hurt. And it's a very important holiday. We stayed in the center until 5 to dry off. I searched for my phone, asked the center directors about its whereabouts, even went to McDonald's and asked, but no luck. My phone is definitely missing. I've decided to give it a week to see if anything turns up before I really take some action. At 5 we left the center, it was still raining, but not as hard. We met up with Jessica, Courtney, Amanda, Maggie, and Alyse at Starbucks and we walked to Flaherty's, the Irish pub by the Cathedral. It was pretty crowded, in all 3 rooms. They were doing the Guinness promotion, too. As we searched for seating Stacey and I struck up on conversation with some 50-60-something-year-old American men. One just happened to be from Park Ridge, IL! Small world, for real. He was visiting his brother who is married to a Sevillana and lives here and his good friend who had been living here for 10 years studying Spanish, basically. We made simple conversation about how the program was going, traveling, etc. Really nice, friendly guys, and I definitely caught a slight Irish accent in the Park Ridge guy. Then the Park Ridge guy offered to buy Stacey and me drinks. So we got free pints of Guinness! After about 15 mins with the nice American men we found where the group was sitting out in the covered patio area. We all sat around drinking pints and having a great time. After awhile we then decided to go around the corner to a TexMex where they had cheap pitchers and were playing NCAA basketball for March Madness. On the way out Stacey and I showed one of the Flaherty's bartenders our coupon and we got a Guinness hat! Yay! Stacey wore it for awhile. At TexMex we sat around socializing with a lot of the Americans there and just hanging out, drinking, watching basketball. So as not to spend a lot of money I had backed a water bottle for Stacey and me of the Smirnoff I had received for my bday. We were taking swigs of that. Then Stacey and I decided to buy a 2 liter pitcher of Budweiser (cheapest they had) to split between the two of us. We got through 2 glasses each when everyone decided to order food there. It was too expensive for me there (trying to be frugal) so Stacey, Katie, and I walked a block over to Cien Montaditos (that little 1 euro each sandwich place I went for my bday) to get some cheap eats. I ordered 2 montaditos. I then realized how drunk I was, so drunk I was not too aware of what was going on. This is when life gets a bit blurry. Katie went to the bathroom and Stacey told me that she was very, very, very drunk of which I was not too aware. Haha. After about 20 min at Montaditos we walked back to TexMex where we finished our pitchers and then took the 20 min walk into la Nervion to hit up O'Neill's. Somehow I ended up with the Guinness hat on my head, btw. How? Lord knows. When we got there it was packed (of course). We went to one of the many bars within wand ordered pints of Guinness. We somehow struck up a convo with some Scottish men. I can't remember if I bought my beer or they did. I just don't know. Katie was teetering she was so drunk. So Jessica, Stacey and I decided to move to a less crowded area. I found out that in the basement area there was a live band playing traditional Celtic music! Oh man, how perfect. Getting the whole experience for sure!! We found a bench in perfect view of the band that, to my recollection was really good, but I can't for the life of me remember how they sounded. Haha. Alls I know is that I was really drunk, wearing a green court jester's hat, and listening to live Celtic music. Life could not be any better. Katie was very, very drunk. She kept tipping back and forth and spitting on the ground. I was not feeling it downstairs anymore, so I went back upstairs to the really populated area to see what Melissa and Courtney were up to. As I walked up I noticed a huuuuuge balloon display making an the flag of Ireland. Love it too much. I then found Courtney and Melissa; they were talking and laughing with the Scottish men...and they both had jester hats! These men were probably in their late 50's. Gotta love the middle-aged men on St. Patty's day! They had been continuously buying the girls pints. Amazing. I tell ya, the trick is to get the older man hook-up. Hehe. So we all hung out upstairs, laughing, being merry. Soon Stacey came upstairs, she and Jessica had sent Katie home in a cab and Jessica had walked herself home (she lives just downt he street from O'Neill's). So we all hung out, Stacey somehow got a hat, and lord knows how. At around 12:30am we were drunk and spent. We had drunk more pints and killed my watter bottle of vodka. We were quite merry. So we said goodbye to the nice Scottish men. Melissa, Stacey and I walked back to los Remedios. We made an impromptu OpenCor stop in Nervion where I bought a granola bar and Stacey got a pastrey. I used tha bathroom there. It was weird. I was very drunk and OpenCor was just weird. It was also weird walking home drunk at 12:30am when we had become so accustomed to not starting our nights until 1, therefore taking the drunken walk home around 3 or 4am. On the way home I definitely had no clue what was going on, very vague memories of it all. Somehow I ended up hooting and hollering at random Spanish guys. Reason? I think I was trying to give them a taste of their own medicine since they were doing the typical Spanish man whistling at the American girls thing. It made sense at the time. On the way home we decided to make one more Madigans stop. It was packed. We intended to drink more, but we were spent and we had to be up early the next morning to go to Cordoba. So we all stumbled home and I ppppaaaassssseeeedddd outttttt at 1:30am. It was an amazing day/night. What a perfect St. Patrick's Day, it went exactly as I had wanted, and better. HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY, INDEED!