- My Boss. Have I mentioned that? Mabel - beautiful Mabel with her strong Irish accent when she speaks English, her fashionable clothes, her long gorgeous dip-dyed hair and her general just making me feel welcome in the office. She even got a wee Christmas card from me today. I love Mabel.
- Food. Apart from the obese Brit that I am now becoming, the food here is delicioso. Spanish Omelette (Tortilla) - O.M.G - just beautiful. I became obsessed for a while, every time my friends would text me I´d be like ´just chillin, eating tortilla´. It´s my new hangover cure and I am going to make myself learn the recipe so I that I can share my tortilla love with people back home.
- Nightlife. The allure of free drinks always gets me. I don´t care if it´s sexist, when a free drink is offered to you, you take it. I love the reggaeton music, bumpin and grinding and salsa dancing, and the fact that on several occasions now I have been up with the DJ - much to their annoyance and my anger at none of them knowing who Cheryl is.
- Fernando. My crazy and good-looking pal from work. Always rocking up in his baggy shorts, messy hair and tattoos, offering me shots of whisky and begging me to buy him a kilt. Crazy crazy Fernando, or "Fer" as everyone calls him, except I don´t like that so to me he is FERNANDO. What a name.
- The 24 hour shop with my wee pal Carlos who knows me now and who thinks I am a drunken mess, lesbian with emotions. Nevertheless, he is always a friendly face when I stroll around the corner to that shop either drunk or hungover to buy tortilla, coke and cigarettes.
- Alcala. I´d never heard of Alcala de Henares before, but seeing as two of my close mates out here live there, I am there all the time - eating their food and drinking their vino. As my dad said to me this morning "you´re Spanish experience really only seems to be that you drink and eat a lot". Yes Dad, it is.
- Slaw and Sanderson Wednesdays. I had to mention this as Sanderson got upset last time when I didn´t mention her in my blog. So on a Wednesday, we now have (a probably very lame) tradition of eating too much food and drinking too much wine together. Yes, this has left us with fatter bodies, horrendous hangovers, stupid photos and embarrassing moments but we always have fun being the immature Sarahs that we are. We´ve made friends (Carlos from the 24 hour shop and a few waiters in a restaurant WE CAN NEVER GO BACK TO.....my fault....) and we´ve spooned on a ridiculous amount of occasions. The Slaw and Sanderson love will never die.
- The Sun. Yeah it´s colder, and it´s not exactly tropical, but really almost everyday there is sunshine and for a girl from Scotland, that´s pretty much THE LIFE.
- Beer. I was a beer drinker back home but I now have even more of a soft spot for the local Mahou. As I embarrassingly drunkenly said on Spanish tv one night when they interviewing people on the street: "¿Por qué te gusta España?" (Why do you like Spain?) "Porque me encanta la cerveza!!!" (Because I love beer!). Oh Sarah...
- El Corte Ingles. The Spanish version of John Lewis. I shop in it´s supermarket all the time (expensive as it is) and I rummage through the make up isles painting my hands with lipsticks and eyeshadows until I decide I can´t afford any of them and disappointing the leering sales staff.
- My apartment. My "lad pad" as my friends call it. Can get lonely but really, it´s awesome. I like living alone, I can eat when I want and walk around naked, I don´t have to clean up straight away and I can sing to myself and not annoy other people (even though my friend Liz always gets a full earful whenever I´m with her - I know she loves it really - my rendition of Rihanna´s "Take A Bow" is just beautiful....
- How chilled the Spanish are. Sometimes annoying and unorganised but pretty good for those days when I´m late for work or clearly hungover and they just don´t care.
- Siestas. I never used to sleep during the day because I would never be able to sleep at night, but now, I can´t go a day without a little snooze (or a 4 hour one like on Monday). My mum always knows when is sleeping time for me so makes sure she avoids a phone call then, and my friends here know that if I don´t reply to a text almost straight away (being the phone addict I am) I am most probably sleeping. What is my life. Lazy ass ho.
Showing posts with label Alcala. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alcala. Show all posts
Wednesday, 18 December 2013
DAY 98: España
Things I Love About Spain:
Monday, 25 November 2013
DAY 75: La Cocaina
Fair to say I think I have officially killed my liver.
Friday night was a good one and Liz and I were all dressed up for a big night. Pre-drinking a ton of (very cheap) gin and tonic, we then headed out with some American girls. First stop was an Irish pub, of course, but it wasn´t long before Slaw wanted to dance and sing and Liz and I had to drag everyone off to the club. Now don´t get me wrong, the club was fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed making a tit out of myself whilst I danced to the "beats" that were playing, but sometimes these "beats" just get a tad boring for me so it wasn´t long before I was trying to get into the DJ booth and request music. At first, the DJ was ok with this...I got some Avicci on and was pretty happy. However, we then slowly got into a fight. Being standard Slaw, I kept jumping up and requesting Cheryl Cole and he kept replying saying he didn´t know he she was. I was so disappointed, I started googling pictures of Chezza on my phone and shouting at him, declaring my love for Cheryl. . Anyway, eventually he basically told me to piss off so I ran outside to the smoking area to relax myself from the drunken fury that had built up inside me. "But it´s Cheryl!!!" I screamed to everyone outside and went on a big spiel about how I think she´s so amazing. ANYWAY, sitting in the smoking area, I had decided to take my jacket off....I do go to Newcastle Uni after all....and everyone kept on touching me saying that I must be cold and that I was crazy (that´s right....Spain is no longer the warm country that everyone envisions). I didn´t care though and I was blatently trying to be all laddish and cool being like "no pasa nada". It was then at this point I decided to wander off to another area all by myself (not really the best idea for a drunk, Bristish girl in a foreign country...but it is something I seem to be quite fond of when "under the influence"). I really don´t know how this happened but I started making friends with this group of men and telling them that I wanted coke. So handing over my money I was just like "yeah bitchezzz it´s time for some cocaina!" and then I saw Liz and got too excited and ran away. We continued sitting in the smoking area when two of my new "mates" came over....two big fat Spanish men. They said to Liz "so do you want cocaine as well?" and she (alarmed) went "nooooo" before I could even give me "enthusiastic" reply. Liz at this point decided it was best that I went home and dragged me back to the house where I (tactically) chundered and went to bed. Most probably a very clever move. Thank you Lizzy!
Of course Saturday was a "veg" day of lounging around and eating crap. We watched "The Holiday" and being my emotional, hungover and tired self I kept crying at it. It´s not even a sad film! I was seriously such a mess and the plans we had for later on that evening to me just seemed impossible. "Liz I think I might just stay here and cry and eat chocolate" I told her as we headed out to meet a group of people for the night but thankfully I didn´t because that night was soooo much fun. We went to a German beer festival called "Oktoberfest", but of course being in Spain, it´s in Novemeber, ALWAYS late. It was amazing. We each had litre glasses of German beer and sang and danced the entire night to the cheesiest of songs. Was a tiny bit like being at Flares (Newcastle reference). The Birdie Song came on (although the bloody Americans kept calling it the Chicken Dance and I was just like errr....no), along with YMCA, The Grease Mega-Mix AND The Pizza Hut Song!! Does anyone else remember that? .... A pizza hut a pizza hut, kentucky fried chicken and a pizza hut, mcdonalds mcdonals....etc etc.....no? It was blatently aimed at all the children there but we were just loving life and people were even filming us because we were all obviously looking like complete idiots. There was also an Elvis tribute act who was hilarious but we couldn´t quite work out the connection with Germany....anyway, clearly a very cultural event.
Lovely Mother Cristina the next day brought her "cucarachas" (cochroaches as she likes to call me and Liz) freshly squeezed orange juice in bed the next morning. I mean seriously, this was like 5 star treatment. It was then not long before she invited me to stay for yet another big lunch with some family and friends. This couple arrived in with such cute dogs that I just could have cuddled all day but the funniest thing was that they both arrived in in wee wooly jumpers and then got them taken off when they came inside. Literally like having a couple kids! I still don´t think I will ever really understand the clothes for animals thing...although I do find it entertaining putting hats on my dog back home...but I´m just weird. Of course this lunch was filled with red wine, as always, and we were even made to do some sort of absynth-like shot after dinner. Crazy Spaniards.
Anyway, I practically died last night in bed and I still feel rough today. Slaw just can´t hack two nights in a row anymore...getting old!! Work is going to be dire....
Friday night was a good one and Liz and I were all dressed up for a big night. Pre-drinking a ton of (very cheap) gin and tonic, we then headed out with some American girls. First stop was an Irish pub, of course, but it wasn´t long before Slaw wanted to dance and sing and Liz and I had to drag everyone off to the club. Now don´t get me wrong, the club was fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed making a tit out of myself whilst I danced to the "beats" that were playing, but sometimes these "beats" just get a tad boring for me so it wasn´t long before I was trying to get into the DJ booth and request music. At first, the DJ was ok with this...I got some Avicci on and was pretty happy. However, we then slowly got into a fight. Being standard Slaw, I kept jumping up and requesting Cheryl Cole and he kept replying saying he didn´t know he she was. I was so disappointed, I started googling pictures of Chezza on my phone and shouting at him, declaring my love for Cheryl. . Anyway, eventually he basically told me to piss off so I ran outside to the smoking area to relax myself from the drunken fury that had built up inside me. "But it´s Cheryl!!!" I screamed to everyone outside and went on a big spiel about how I think she´s so amazing. ANYWAY, sitting in the smoking area, I had decided to take my jacket off....I do go to Newcastle Uni after all....and everyone kept on touching me saying that I must be cold and that I was crazy (that´s right....Spain is no longer the warm country that everyone envisions). I didn´t care though and I was blatently trying to be all laddish and cool being like "no pasa nada". It was then at this point I decided to wander off to another area all by myself (not really the best idea for a drunk, Bristish girl in a foreign country...but it is something I seem to be quite fond of when "under the influence"). I really don´t know how this happened but I started making friends with this group of men and telling them that I wanted coke. So handing over my money I was just like "yeah bitchezzz it´s time for some cocaina!" and then I saw Liz and got too excited and ran away. We continued sitting in the smoking area when two of my new "mates" came over....two big fat Spanish men. They said to Liz "so do you want cocaine as well?" and she (alarmed) went "nooooo" before I could even give me "enthusiastic" reply. Liz at this point decided it was best that I went home and dragged me back to the house where I (tactically) chundered and went to bed. Most probably a very clever move. Thank you Lizzy!
Of course Saturday was a "veg" day of lounging around and eating crap. We watched "The Holiday" and being my emotional, hungover and tired self I kept crying at it. It´s not even a sad film! I was seriously such a mess and the plans we had for later on that evening to me just seemed impossible. "Liz I think I might just stay here and cry and eat chocolate" I told her as we headed out to meet a group of people for the night but thankfully I didn´t because that night was soooo much fun. We went to a German beer festival called "Oktoberfest", but of course being in Spain, it´s in Novemeber, ALWAYS late. It was amazing. We each had litre glasses of German beer and sang and danced the entire night to the cheesiest of songs. Was a tiny bit like being at Flares (Newcastle reference). The Birdie Song came on (although the bloody Americans kept calling it the Chicken Dance and I was just like errr....no), along with YMCA, The Grease Mega-Mix AND The Pizza Hut Song!! Does anyone else remember that? .... A pizza hut a pizza hut, kentucky fried chicken and a pizza hut, mcdonalds mcdonals....etc etc.....no? It was blatently aimed at all the children there but we were just loving life and people were even filming us because we were all obviously looking like complete idiots. There was also an Elvis tribute act who was hilarious but we couldn´t quite work out the connection with Germany....anyway, clearly a very cultural event.
Lovely Mother Cristina the next day brought her "cucarachas" (cochroaches as she likes to call me and Liz) freshly squeezed orange juice in bed the next morning. I mean seriously, this was like 5 star treatment. It was then not long before she invited me to stay for yet another big lunch with some family and friends. This couple arrived in with such cute dogs that I just could have cuddled all day but the funniest thing was that they both arrived in in wee wooly jumpers and then got them taken off when they came inside. Literally like having a couple kids! I still don´t think I will ever really understand the clothes for animals thing...although I do find it entertaining putting hats on my dog back home...but I´m just weird. Of course this lunch was filled with red wine, as always, and we were even made to do some sort of absynth-like shot after dinner. Crazy Spaniards.
Anyway, I practically died last night in bed and I still feel rough today. Slaw just can´t hack two nights in a row anymore...getting old!! Work is going to be dire....
Thursday, 10 October 2013
DAY 30: El Vino
Had such a lovely day yesterday. After work I went to Alcala again and had yet another beautiful lunch at Liz's house. Her flatmate, Cristina, makes the most amazing food. There was chicken, chorizo, chickpeas in salsa, bread, olives, black pudding (kind of)..just so much...and it was soooo good. Of course a lot of red wine was consumed as well, along with gin and tonics, beer, and a cava milkshake! Of course, yet again, I am hungover.
So of course being in Spain, we had lunch about 4pm and we were joined by Sarah (now referred to as Sanderson, and me Slaw) and Cristina's work colleague, Pablo....(such a typical Spanish name). A lot of good chat over dinner and later on a game of 'Never Have I Ever'.....playing this with an older woman who I swear has done everything..was good craic.
At work today I had to envelope tonnes and tonnes of letters and then address them all, really pretty boring but at least I didn't have to deal with people in my hungover state. Literally, I arrived to work (straight from Alcala as I stayed at Liz's) in yesterday's tights, a smelly t-shirt, contacts slept in, greasy hair and make up on from the night before...I'm literally going to be known as the office skank! Ah well! Of course I had a siesta this afternoon and now I am preparing myself for a weekend of 'banter' with my pal Rosie who is visiting me....YAYA!
So of course being in Spain, we had lunch about 4pm and we were joined by Sarah (now referred to as Sanderson, and me Slaw) and Cristina's work colleague, Pablo....(such a typical Spanish name). A lot of good chat over dinner and later on a game of 'Never Have I Ever'.....playing this with an older woman who I swear has done everything..was good craic.
At work today I had to envelope tonnes and tonnes of letters and then address them all, really pretty boring but at least I didn't have to deal with people in my hungover state. Literally, I arrived to work (straight from Alcala as I stayed at Liz's) in yesterday's tights, a smelly t-shirt, contacts slept in, greasy hair and make up on from the night before...I'm literally going to be known as the office skank! Ah well! Of course I had a siesta this afternoon and now I am preparing myself for a weekend of 'banter' with my pal Rosie who is visiting me....YAYA!
Monday, 30 September 2013
DAY 19: Alcala
It's quite reassuring when a Spanish person asks you for directions. It's especially satisfying when you know exactly where they need to go and you can say it in Spanish. Get in Slaw!
If I cancel out Friday (my day of rest), in which I slobbed in my pyjamas and watched shit tv all day 'recovering' from the night before, I had a pretty good weekend. Surprisingly today, my boss didn't mind that I had missed work. My lie of being ill was so obvious but yet no comment was made - phew! If you think about it, I was actually ill, it was just my immature self that had made me that way....sangria...whisky....beer...gin.....ANYWAY, on Saturday I went to Sol to try and find a bank. Nope still don't have a bank account, and nope, there were no banks open. Really don't know what I'm going to do :/. So as I was strolling through Sol, across the road I saw this couple who I recognised. I had to double-take because it would be so random that they would be in Madrid this time of year and that I would bump into them, but it was them, it was my friend Fee's parents. I ran over to them and I have to say it was quite comformting having someone I actually knew in Madrid, and they took me for a coffee which was really nice. After that, Lara and I went shopping and found our new favourite shop, Pimkie. It's such good value for such nice clothes. Saying that, I went into the changing room with about 10 items and came out with 2 - I am so hard to please, I never like things on me! Plus, bank balance really isn't too healthy at the moment what with being an unpaid intern! Anyway, got myself a wee jumper and a sort of kimono thing, really don't know if that's cool or not? That's me, trying to be 'edgy' and all that...
I wish I was at San. Bernabeu on Saturday night to watch the Atletico v Real game. I only live 5 minutes away!!! I ended up watching it in a bar anyway with Alvaro, which was still good fun. However, I do have to admit, I am one of those girls who pretends she is into football when really she has no idea what is going on....so....I always say I support Liverpool, just because my Dad and brother do - Stevie G right?! - and on Saturday with Alvaro he asked me who I was supporting, and I just go 'oh yeah I follow Real Madrid'. Excuse me, you 'follow Real Madrid' Sarah?! Name any of their recent matches. The only thing I can say is, I know who Christian Bale is....oops....Gareth I mean!..Gareth Bale! :P Anyway, as an Atleti fan, Alvaro was not too impressed, but it was fun even still.
On Sunday I got the train to Alacala de Henares, which is a cute wee town 40 minutes north of Madrid. There I met a new friend, Liz, who is friends with someone I know from home. Small small world! I had a really nice afternoon with her and the Spanish lady who she lives with, who is really kind of crazy. She seemed to love talking about sex (fits perfectly with me ;) ) and she was teaching us all these dirty phrases...how useful! She also made this A-M-A-Z-I-N-G lunch and I was so so full afterwards. It got to about 5pm and I realised I was fairly tipsy as well what with all the wine and beer she supplying me with - I just find it too hard to say no! Later that day, I met up with Sophie, who is trying to find an apartment there. We went for a few drinks with her friends before it was time for me to really think about going home, what with bloody work the next day!
So here I am in my wee apartment, and it is absolutely pouring outside - I did not ask for this - I moved AWAY from Scotland! Not sure what plans I have this week but no doubt it will include cerveza, cigarillos, baile, duermo, divertido y un poco más sol!!! (For you non-linguists: BEER, CIGARETTES, DANCING, SLEEP, FUN and A LITTLE MORE SUNSHINE) ;)
If I cancel out Friday (my day of rest), in which I slobbed in my pyjamas and watched shit tv all day 'recovering' from the night before, I had a pretty good weekend. Surprisingly today, my boss didn't mind that I had missed work. My lie of being ill was so obvious but yet no comment was made - phew! If you think about it, I was actually ill, it was just my immature self that had made me that way....sangria...whisky....beer...gin.....ANYWAY, on Saturday I went to Sol to try and find a bank. Nope still don't have a bank account, and nope, there were no banks open. Really don't know what I'm going to do :/. So as I was strolling through Sol, across the road I saw this couple who I recognised. I had to double-take because it would be so random that they would be in Madrid this time of year and that I would bump into them, but it was them, it was my friend Fee's parents. I ran over to them and I have to say it was quite comformting having someone I actually knew in Madrid, and they took me for a coffee which was really nice. After that, Lara and I went shopping and found our new favourite shop, Pimkie. It's such good value for such nice clothes. Saying that, I went into the changing room with about 10 items and came out with 2 - I am so hard to please, I never like things on me! Plus, bank balance really isn't too healthy at the moment what with being an unpaid intern! Anyway, got myself a wee jumper and a sort of kimono thing, really don't know if that's cool or not? That's me, trying to be 'edgy' and all that...
I wish I was at San. Bernabeu on Saturday night to watch the Atletico v Real game. I only live 5 minutes away!!! I ended up watching it in a bar anyway with Alvaro, which was still good fun. However, I do have to admit, I am one of those girls who pretends she is into football when really she has no idea what is going on....so....I always say I support Liverpool, just because my Dad and brother do - Stevie G right?! - and on Saturday with Alvaro he asked me who I was supporting, and I just go 'oh yeah I follow Real Madrid'. Excuse me, you 'follow Real Madrid' Sarah?! Name any of their recent matches. The only thing I can say is, I know who Christian Bale is....oops....Gareth I mean!..Gareth Bale! :P Anyway, as an Atleti fan, Alvaro was not too impressed, but it was fun even still.
On Sunday I got the train to Alacala de Henares, which is a cute wee town 40 minutes north of Madrid. There I met a new friend, Liz, who is friends with someone I know from home. Small small world! I had a really nice afternoon with her and the Spanish lady who she lives with, who is really kind of crazy. She seemed to love talking about sex (fits perfectly with me ;) ) and she was teaching us all these dirty phrases...how useful! She also made this A-M-A-Z-I-N-G lunch and I was so so full afterwards. It got to about 5pm and I realised I was fairly tipsy as well what with all the wine and beer she supplying me with - I just find it too hard to say no! Later that day, I met up with Sophie, who is trying to find an apartment there. We went for a few drinks with her friends before it was time for me to really think about going home, what with bloody work the next day!
So here I am in my wee apartment, and it is absolutely pouring outside - I did not ask for this - I moved AWAY from Scotland! Not sure what plans I have this week but no doubt it will include cerveza, cigarillos, baile, duermo, divertido y un poco más sol!!! (For you non-linguists: BEER, CIGARETTES, DANCING, SLEEP, FUN and A LITTLE MORE SUNSHINE) ;)
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