Málaga: last program excursion ::sniff::

My alarm really freaked me out when it woke me up Saturday morning. After not sleeping enough the previous night I really slept deeply Friday night (I went to be at around 1am). When my alarm went off at 6:30am I was startled out of a really vivid dream. All morning I was in a weird haze, subsequently. I showered, finished packing, packed myself a lunch, and Stacey and I were out the door by 7:50 to meet the bus at the Torre del Oro. The bus was scheduled to be there at 8:30, Stacey and I got there at 8:15 and were surprised to see nobody there. We weren't sure if we were relatively early or really late. We figured the former. And we were correct. People began showing up around 8:20ish. Isn't it normal to be at an "appointment" 15 minutes early? Oh my silly program. Everyone's becoming more of a slacker about meeting times for these excursions since this would be our last one. It's so weird that this was going to be our last excursion. Holy crap, I can't believe it's already May. What is happening???? Sigh. Anyways, we were all really excited because the program excursions are always so much fun, we get to stay in hotels and hang out with everybody at once which doesn't happen too often. Good times! The bus showed up at about 8:35 and we all boarded. Pepe walked the aisles to give us money for food (I love when Pepe becomes our sugar daddy) and schedules for the trip. Our only planned event was a trip to the Picasso museum...there's a random Picasso museum in little ole Malaga because that's where Picasso's from. Pretty awesome, eh? The bus ride was about 2.5 hours long, I spent the first half sleeping and the second half playing "Full House" trivia with some people which I dominated and thus kind of freaked everyone out. My "Full House" knowledge, I admit, is a bit ridiculous and everyone became well aware of this fact. Trust me, it's not something to be proud of. We arrived in Malaga at around 11:30. Malaga looked like a really nice, quaint beach town upon driving in. I was liking it...and the gorgeous weather was just augmented my love of the town. We arrived at our hotel, el Hotel los Naranjos (naranjo=orange tree) which just happened to be 2 blocks across from the beach. Yes! We walked into the reception, received our room keys, and went to put our stuff down. We were in 121 which was luckily right next store to Jessica and Courtney. Our room was a good size, it had two twin beds next to each other and a spare third bed. A mini bar with a small TV, and a balcony with table and chairs! That was the best part...therefore, pregame in our room that night, for sure. While settling in we turned on the TV...it was cable! I haven't seen cable TV in ages! We got VH1...in English! We watched some "Fabulous Life of..." show and it felt oh so good to have a good dose of trashy, American TV. We've had countless convos over the last 4 months about how much we miss trashy, shallow VH1 shows. Yeah, life was good. I was liking los Naranjos. Katie and Melissa's room was upstairs, but they came down asking to store their stuff in our room because their room, I guess, was smokey and messy so they requested it be cleaned better. After about 20 minutes someone yelled up to us that the bus was leaving to take us to the Picasso mueseum. According to our schedules we were supposed to meet for the museum at 1, but I guess we were leaving earlier. So we ran out, thinking that the bus was leaving without us. Stacey and I were so confused and couldn't figure out where the door outside was! We figured it out, and got out in time. It was kind of chaotic. But we made it. The bus then took us a mere five minute ride to the musem. We got out, walked across a plaza and down some narrow side street to the museum. We split up into two groups because the museum staff was being all weird about number of people entering the museum at one time. So one group got in after waiting ten minutes, and then we ended up waiting outside for twenty whole minutes before entering. We checked out the gift shop across the street, but it did not really suffice to entertain us while waiting. A lot of people had lost their excitement for the museum upon entering Malaga and seeing the beach and the gorgeous weather. While waiting, many people considered leaving. I think that Stacey and I were the only people who were legitimately excited about the museum. Finally we entered and were immediately faced with a group of intense security guards telling us to line up on some staircase. This was so weird; the security was super intense, yet the museum is so small and in this little Spanish nothing building. The Museo de Bellas Artes in Sevilla is much larger and there was barely any entrance security...there wasn't even this much security at the Prado in Madrid...nor the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam! What's with this, Malaga? Anyways, they let us walk into this little room, but then a guard stopped us right as I got to the entrance of the room. We then had to wait a little bit more. What were we waiting for? I was honestly a bit peeved. Finally we were aloud in, and it turned out to be a checkpoint where you are required to check all cameras. Ummm, okay. It made me nervous just to hand over my camera to be put in some big cabinet, but what could I do. They also seized all jackets and large bags. Whatever. We got guides and such and were aloud in. There were multiple rooms filled mostly with Picasso's really early pre-cubist paintings and his later works from the 40's-70's. There were also a lot of drawings, some even on lined paper! There were also a good amount of sculptures. I looooooooooooooved it all. All of the pieces there were not at all "typical" Picasso. It's all of his more obscure works which do not look much like what you'd think of as a standard Picasso. It was so interesting to see the variety of his work. I also got to see how he was a multi-media artist who painted on many things and with all different materials. So interesting...all the more reason I consider him a freaking genius. I really love Picasso. If there's anybody from history that I'd want to meet it'd be him. Hands down. While walking through the museum we were guided in an "order" by guards standing outside of each door. You couldn't really choose which room to walk into, you had to follow a pattern. And then when you enter each room you have to show your entrance ticket, which they carefully check each time. So weird. There was a really awesome temporary exhibit that we saw last called Picasso in Antibes which are his post-Guernica works. He took a period of time to go off into Antibes and paint a bunch of mythological paintings. They're very simple and cheerful which highly contrast most of Picasso's complicated, introspective works. The description says that after painting Guernica, which took very much time and concentration as well as emotion since it depicted such heavy subject matter, he needed to separate himself from such themes and paint simpler, smaller, and lighter works that depict happiness and serenity. The most famous painting of the series is "Joie de Vivre" which is brightly colored and quite cubist, but with very simple features and details. It's very different and extremely intriguing. I loved it, and Stacey really loved it. We both got really into the museum and examined every piece carefully. Everybody else was not too impressed and rushed through there in order to obtain more beach time. I got a call from Melissa while in one of the rooms which was embarrassing and I got yelled at by a guard. I didn't think that we'd be there too much longer nor that the walk was too long, so I told her to wait up for us at the hotel and we'd all walk over together...especially since all of her things were in our room. After the call Stacey and I spent a bit more time finishing looking at every exhibit. One really cool one was an exhibit of photography by Michael Sima who spent time in Antibes with Picasso and took numerous, awesome photos of Picasso at work, in his studio, with his girlfriend of the moment, etc. It was really cool to see images of such a modern master at work. He's so little. And tan. Awwww! I would love to meet that man, I have nothing but unending respect for him. Once we exhausted the museum we saw a sign pointing downstairs indicating an archaeological exhibit. In a Picasso museum? We got down there to see lit up ruins of the old Roman city that was once there. How random! The whole time Stacey and I walked through there we were pretty baffled by the whole thing. I mean, what?? So strange. The exhibit wasn't fascinating at all, just random. And it just looked like a bunch of rocks. I don't know, it's hard to appreciate archaelogical ruins a) after looking at a lot of modern art and b) indoors. Stacey and I got a good laugh out of that one. We then went upstairs to the really nice gift shop where I bought a poster of my favorite piece in the museum: it's called "The Acrobat" and it's a simple white cubist figure on a black background contorted in the strangest way. I really enjoyed it. Stacey bought herself a large poster of "Joie de Vivre" because she loved it so much after seeing it. We then left after a good hour at the museum. We had underestimated the amount of time it would take to walk home; it ended up taking 25 minutes to walk home. Oops. Oh well, we got a nice little walking tour of Malaga and bought water. We arrived at our hotel to find a note in our room from Melissa and Katie saying that they had gotten access to our room, grabbed their things, and went to the beach and to call to meet up. I don´t blame them. We got dressed and ready while watching VH1, of course. It was great; they were doing a countdown of the 100 best music videos ever and I got to see me-self some Lauryn Hill an--here's the kicker--Meatloaf. Yup, who could forget the classic, "I would do Anything for Love (but I won't do that)". I was a happy camper, needless to say. We then walked a short 3 minutes to the beach. I must be spoiled from Lagos because the beach in Málaga was nothing special. In fact, it wasn´t too great at all. The sand was a dark brown and very hot, and the water, although it was the Mediterranean, was quite dirty. To the right one can see a huge oil rig. Beautiful. I mean, it was actually a nice beach. Again, I´ve just been spoiled. I called Melissa to meet up, found them, and we laid down our mats to lay out. It was pretty hot out in the sun and the sand was burning hot...so hot that I had to run to put my mat down and then run to dunk my feet in water. Blech. I then put on my sunscreen and laid out for a good hour and a half. While laying out we had many a conversation with people in our program who don't typically get to hang out with. It was kind of awkward at times because not only in Portugal do women not like to wear tops to the beach, but also in Spain. Many girls on our trip decided to comply with such trends and did the whole topless beach thing. I don't know, having conversations with girls from Michigan and New York and Pennsylvania with whom we've been studying for the past 4 months is just awkward. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I just need to loosen up and be more European. Anyways, at around 6 we left and headed to the nearby grocery store, Mercadonia, to buy some snacks and wine. We wanted to take advantage of our ability to drink indoors and watch VH1 again so we all bought 99 cent boxes of wine and snacks to hang out at the hotel for awhile before dinner. Stacey and I decided to split a box of sangria while everyone else bought their own boxes (1 liter). I also bought a box of cherry tomatoes. Mmmm. We then headed back and all sat around in Stacey's and my room for a couple of hours watching VH1 and drinking and eating. It was so fun, just like being back in Ann Arbor! The VH1 countdown wasn't on anymore, but instead it played music videos. But this European VH1 was amaaaazing because it played music videos from the '70's-now. So we saw so much old stuff from a huge spectrum of artists. We particularly enjoyed the 80's stuff. It was awesome reminiscing about old music and trying to guess what they'd play next. I am obsessed with European VH1. Best music EVER. Also, the weirdest part was, all of the commercials were in Hebrew (although the programs were all in English). How random is that? Anyways, we were there for awhile where Stacey and I proceeded to get a bit tipsy with our shared liter of sangria while everyone else got drunk off of their own liters of white wine. Courtney, particularly, got pretty wasted. I mean, she was sloppy. It was hilarious, she was out of control. We got a kick out of it. At around 8:45 we decided to head out to grab dinner. I was really intent on going to a restaurant we passed on the way back from the museum called Spaghetti Circus. How funny is that? Everyone thought that I wanted to go because I used to do circus (something everyone here, as well as in Ann Arbor likes to poke fun at me for...ya know, my old circus days), but really it was because it was called Spaghetti Circus and had a big clown eating a bowl of spaghetti and a glass of wine on the sign. We got there right as they were opening and proceeded to enter until Courtney's drunken munchies dissuaded her. She wanted pizza and, unfortunately, they didi not have pizza. No big deal, we just went next store to a restaurant called Dalli which had a huge pizza menu, as well as pasta. In fact, Malaga is teeming with Italian food...I wonder why. Anyways, we were the only people in Dalli because although it was 9pm that's considered early for dinner. The restaurant was pretty nice, really swanky, art deco modern decor with a nice, maroon color scheme. The menu was amazing, so much to choose from that it took us some time to decide. I was immediately sold on the salmon thin crust pizza; it had salmon, anchovies, spices, mozzarella, tomato, black olives, and capers. Sounded heavenly. And it was. We all loooooved our food. It was so nice to have a quality, non-Spanish meal. It had been awhile since we had all gone out to eat, let alone to a nice restaurant. Gotta thank Pepe for giving us money. We saw on the menu that they had a pasta made with Sambuca, so in honor of Lagos we decided to take a shot of Sambuca for dessert. Besides, Stacey had yet to try it. The shots came and they had beans of some sort in them and they were on fire! So cool. Courtney, in her drunken absentmindedness blew on the flames, as if that would put the fire out or something. We all yelled, "No!" but it was too late. The flames spread onto the napkins on which the shot glasses were placed and the napkins were on fire. We tried to extinguish them, but nothing was happening. Finally another waitress came over with a big spoon and patted out the fire. We almost burnt the place down! Oh, Courtney. Then the waiter put out the flames from the shots and we waited for them to cool. Then, bottoms up. Ya know, Sambuca doesn't taste as great when you drink it sober. It kind of burned. Stacey was not a fan. Oh well. It made my tipsiness return. AND they didn't charge us for them! Even after we almost set the place on fire with them. Aaaaawesome. I liked Dalli. We then walked back to the hotel to get ready to go out. I showered and did an intense leg shaving job which is always a joy when I get to stay in hotels. How I miss real showers. Sigh. While getting ready I turned on VH1 and that Danny Banaduce show was on, and although I was happy to have my VH1 stupid reality shows back, I refuse to give that show the time of day. It just makes me angry. So I watched some Julia Stiles movie and some of Junior. Haha, remember that movie? Where Arnold Schwartzenegger gets pregnant? I immediately laughed upon turning it on. Governor of California, ladies and gentlemen. Jessica came in the room and told me that Courtney was still kind of drunk and wasn't getting ready because she was watching the Danny Bonaduce show and crying about how sad it was. Hahaha oh Courtney. In a couple of hours we were all close to ready and hung out in Jessica and Courtney's room and watched the awesome video line-up on VH1. They played "Blue Da-Ba-Di", "Let's Talk About Sex", "Can't Touch This", etc. etc. I'm telling you, I am in love with VH1 here. Amazing. We pre-gamed in the room and got sufficiently drunk before ultimately heading out a little before 1am. We walked for about 25 minutes to get to calle Granada, the big bar/club area. When we arrived we found the huge plaza by the Picasso museum packed with teenagers. It was a huge botellon! We're not ones to pass up a good botellon. Stacey, Jessica, and I made a quick bathroom stop and then met up with the others in the plaza. We found them being hit on by fifteen-year-olds which was quite comical. Comical until we joined them. One kid, and when I say kid I mean kid, kept walking by my and making comments and grabbing our butts. I turned around and yelled, "Por que?? Por que??" (why? why?) like a disappointed, angry babysitter. He just shrugged and laughed to his friends. I was not happy. Spanish males do not please me one bit. We stood some more while stupid fifteen-year-olds hit on everyone when I felt a pinch. That stupid kid was sitting right behind/below me and would periodically pinch my ass. I had had it. It was obvious that this was not a place that most foreigners, nor adults went. So I guess they had that whole "American girls are easy" (which is a very common mentality around here) idea, so they figured that it'd be okay to treat us like that. It was time to go. As we left I kept yelling "I don't talk to children!" in Spanish because everybody was just being terrible to us. On the way out this group of 16 or 17-year-olds stopped us and tried to be smooth, while being insulting with their comments. They asked how old we were and we all said 30. Then we left. We walked down the street to a discoteca whose name I can't remember. It was kind of lame and didn't play very good music...mostly techno with some random guy with dreads walking around playing bongos to the beat of the music. We took a shot there and barely danced for a good hour until we decided to leave. We stood outside and somehow Jessica started talking to some random Swedish guy while Courtney and Melissa approached a group of Spanish guys to ask where we should go. They suggested a club which souned like "guay" (the Spanish word for "cool") when actually they said club White. Oh the Spanish accent. They said that they were going there, so we accompanieed them. It wasn't too far away, and there were intense bouncers and a line, and a cover, but the guys said that we were their friends and they got us in for free. They were really cool guys, actually. Really respectful and nice, there were three of them. One of them had an eyebrow and chin piercing, one dressed like the frontman for an alternative band or something, and the other was very normal looking except for his one crutch with which he walked due to a spill he took on his bike months ago. Melissa drunkenly started dissing the health care system in Spain and telling him how if he was in the States he would not still be on crutches. Needless to say, that did not do much to boost his morale. This club was really awesome and we ended up staing there until 6am. The service was great, it was pretty spacious, and played really awesome music. It was a hip-hop club so it played all of the best dance music, the kind you'd hear at house parties at UofM. It was awesome, and we had soooo much fun there. We all danced with so many people and they were all really cool. Well, there was one guy who was nice and had the best intentions but he was so persistent with Melissa. I mean, he was following her and she kept asking us to protect her. It was pretty silly. Then this one guy from Botswana did the same thing to Stacey. The Botswanian guy's friend did the same thing to me and would not let me not dance with him. Somehow I escaped...perhaps because I kissed him and then ran away. Mwa ha ha. I then ended up in dancing lines with our new Spanish friends and it was so fun. At one point Melissa and Courtney ended being pulled onto the stage area and danced with the Spanish guys, and that was pretty funny because Courtney and Melissa "don't dance" (unless wasted). We all consistently throughout the night took shots. We all got pretty drunk, but surprisingly not overwhelmingly drunk...perhaps due to spacing out our drinks and all of the dancing. We finally left around 6 and my ears were ringing and my voice was gone. We said farewell to our awesome Spanish friends who took us under their wing, and walked home. According to sober Jessica it took us a really long time to walk home because we were all stumbling the whole way. That's not how it is in my memory, but then again I was pretty drunk. We got back, Stacey and I got into bed and drunkenly split a banana, Stacey ate an entire box of animal crackers, and I ate about a third of a box of All-Bran. Hahaha, those are some raaaaandom drunken munchies. While eating we watched music videos on VH1. Always a treat. We then crashed at a little before 7am. Goooood times, Malaga, good times. I can honestly say that Malaga, of all program trips, showed me the best time at night. We had all been craving a discoteca, and we found an amazing one. What a kick-ass night!!