Saturday, September 4th

Mikaela, Katy, and me

Today Katy and I woke up early and met the German girls at the pool again. Since it opens at 11 am, we were there at approximately 10:58 in order to get a prime sunning spot. The sun is super strong here from noon until 4, so we had plenty of time to bronzify! Once again I brought a lunch, so we picnic-ed poolside! :) Between laying out, reading a Spanish magainze, and playing cards, it was a fabulous lazy afternoon!

Around 7 I headed home again for dinner and to get ready to go out. Since my family eats so late, Katy and Mikaela met in Puerta del Sol without me and had a few drinks before I caught up with them.

For dinner my senora had a friend over. She was super sweet, but talked WAY to fast for me. She was also really sarcastic (but in a funny way). The only problem is I never knew that she was joking so we didn't really communicate.. Like at all.. In fact the only thing I understood her saying was when she showed me the box of wine she had in her purse and said something about how we call it pre-gaming in the states. LOL! I'll have to ask my sister how to say it in Spanish again! haha!

drinking the free mojitos we were offered

After dinner was over, I asked my senora and sister how to get home at night. The metro shuts down around 1:30 am, but the bars literally do not close. I don't mean they stay open until late, I mean you literally can party until 10 am if you so wish. Teresa, my sister, got out her transportation map, told me which buses I could take home, and what route they would follow. I was a little confused because they dropped me off several blocks from my house instead of right across the street like the metro does, so my senora offered to drive me past the bus stop, so I'd know exactly where it was and how to get home from there, and drop me off at the next metro station. She was going out with her friend anyway so I definitely took her up on the offer. So when I left the house, I knew how I was going to get home. No problems.. Right.....??

When I finally made it to Sol it was about 12:30.The three of us tried to get ahold of the German girls, but they went to a bar that cost 15 euros (about $20) just to get in, and that didn't include any drinks, so we decided that we'd just walk around for a while until we found a better deal. The better deal came in the form of free entrance to an Irish Pub called Star Struck. The guy handing out cards also made sure we all got a free shot and a free drink. Later he found me on the dance floor and told me he had another drink special for me. I suddenly pretended to be deaf because the offer seemed a little too sketchy for me. Shortly after we left the bar.

demonstrating the "NOT OKAY
 touching

After leaving the pub we ended up just walking back to Sol and people watching for a while. One crazy old guy came over and gave me a free un-opened beer and then proceeded to blow bubbles bigger than my head. By now it was around 3 am and we were all 3 ready to go to bed. Ready for the bus fun??

So I saw my bus (L5) coming down the street. I was like omgsh I want to catch that one because otherwise it'll be like another 45 minutes until the next one comes (at least it'd been about 45 minutes since I'd seen the last one). So like a goofball, I take off RUNNING to catch the bus. I crossed the street right in front of it, but then had no idea where the actual bus stop was. I knew it was somewhere along the street I was on, but I was clueless. The bus driver started pointing down the street from me, in the direction he was going, so I began to sprint again a few feet and then stopped, looked back, he pointed farther, I jogged again -- this went on back and forth at least 3 times until I finally found the darn stop... Once there I waited a solid 5 minutes for the bus to weave it's way through all the taxi traffic and pick me up.

demonstrating the "okay" touching

On the bus I found a great seat where I could see the screen that said what stop was next. I pulled out my little metro map (because the L buses follow the corresponding metro route - bus L5 follows metro line 5). So I'm watching out the window and following along with my map and I realize that some of the names aren't matching up, so I just figured that at night there were probably just more stops in between the metro stops and that's why I didn't recognize the names. So like an idiot, I stayed in my seat and didn't ask the bus driver about my stop. Mostly because I was afraid I was going to fall over since the bus was so jerky, and I was afraid he wouldn't understand me. Also at this point I still thought I had things under control.. Ha ha ha!

So we're driving along for approximately a year and I'm thinking to myself I really thought I'd have been home by now. The bus is thinning out, so I start looking out the window for land marks. I recognize nothing. Nada. Zip. Well we passed a corte ingles, but those are like starbucks around here. Finally we pass a metro stop and I caught the name (which was not the same as the bus stop we stopped at next). The metro stop was 3 or 4 stops past mine. Certainly not walking distance at night. So I'm sitting on a bus, alone, at 3:30 in the morning how the heck I'm going to get BACK the other direction. The whole time I'm texting my friend Katy. We decided that I'd probably just get on a different bus at the end of the line, or this bus might circle back around.

Us 3 in the Plaza :)

Long story short (since this has become the longest post in the history of the world), when we hit the end of the line, the bus driver started waking up all the passed out people and kicking them off. I was a little terrified since I didn't know exactly where I was going so I showed him my metro map and said I needed diego de lion. He told me that we'd already passed it. I asked him what I could do now, trying not to cry. And he finally told me I could sit in the front of the bus and he'd make sure I got off on my stop the next time. So approximately 20 minutes later, I was dropped off at my bus stop and walked home. The good thing was, this bus stop was just across the street from my house instead of a couple blocks away. Regardless, I made it home safe and sound.. around 4:15 am.

When I told my family the next day they laughed and said I came home early!! They also told me not to hesitate to call if I was ever lost and needed anything. The coordinator of our program also asked why I didn't call her and said that it didn't matter what time it was, if I ever needed ANYTHING that I should call her right away. So don't you worry.. I'm being taken care of over here! :)