Besitos desde Madrid: I've come to realize...

...how hard it is to actually "study" abroad. Take, for example, this past week...I kept trying to read for my religion classes and for some reason I can't do it. I find myself on Facebook almost every five minutes and if it's not that then I'm looking at my calendar to see what trips I'm booking for the semester. And now I'm writing on my blog. Such great progress. I keep forgetting that the main reason I'm here is for school; it's just too absurd for me. I'd rather explore slash party allllll the time. Speaking of exploring, I recently visited Toledo for the first time! It was really cool, it's a pretty small and very religious city known for its gold and steel production and filled with lots of important/historical sites to see. Me and my friend Dom went to the famous Gothic cathedral, which was huuuuge and filled with incredible paintings by Greco. A couple was getting married while we were there- you should've seen how many people lined the streets, rice in hand and everything, it was madness, but so beautiful to see such happiness. I decided then and there that if I ever get married (to a Spaniard of course), its for sure happening in Spain. Anywho, we roamed around parts of Toledo for the rest of the day and stopped at a lookout with a gorgeous view of the whole city before we left.

The beautiful bride

Her chariot

said people with rice in hand

cutest doggie everrr

yup, he's got SIX toes

check out that viewww

I <3 Toledo

The following week progressed along with many classes, assignments, readings (that were never read), etc. until finally another weekend...and have I already said that the Spanish know how to party? Well, they do, and they party HARD. I haven't really gone out a lot in Madrid in the past week since my last post, but the party I'm referring to is Ibiza (or Ibitha, as the Spanish would say). For those that don't know, Ibiza is an island off the coast of Spain and is the motherland of clubs, party, raving, you name it, it's aaallllll there. It's one huge party and you don't ever stop dancing. Can you guess where I went this past weekend? :)

AND IT WAS EPIC. Sooo much fun let me tell ya. I would highly recommend going there at least once in your lifetime. But anyway, me and Kelly got there Thursday night and we started with a bang! at Pacha Ibiza. David Guetta was headlining along with other great DJs (which I don't remember ha) and he definitely kept the party rockin'. I don't know how we managed this seeing that Pacha was PACKED to the max, but we ended up being front row all night long and it was awesome. People were going nuts (I among them) and danced and danced and danced to the electro beats at Guetta's fingertips. I took pictures on my phone that night but unfortunately it broke (I'll explain later) so I can't show you :(. The next night, our crew headed to Privilege, the largest club in the world. This place was pretty sick, but we didn't stay long so I couldn't tell you a lot about it. Highlight of Privilege? When we walked in they were playing awesome funky house music which was aiight, then all of a sudden the DJ plays the King of Pop (aka MJ) and I was all on it, dancing and gettin my groove on, it was fabulous.

2nd night in Ibiza, we couldn't stop laughing...

Privilege! Gettin' down to Michael Jackson

2nd floor of Privilege

And thennnn, the next day, was the ~~boat party~~ booze cruise. This was hands-down, my favorite part of the trip. I don't even think we sailed to a certain destination, but man was it a fiesta the entire time. The DJs were awesome and made everyone dance...like you couldn't just sit on this boat, the music was too good to pass up. The "bartenders" if you could call them that, just kept pouring sangria and beer nonstop and they even had food on board! Seriously, I can't get over how awesome this was. OH and then, the boat stopped for a good hour or so in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea for everyone to jump out for a little swim. I didn't go in because I forgot a swimsuit but everyone else had a blast until the swarm of jellyfish attacked them but hey, it was STILL all in good fun :). As the crew was preparing to leave back to the port, this beastly freak-of-nature wave hits the front of the boat with full force at the exact spot where I was standing and completely soaks my front side from head to toe. I thought it was hilarious until I opened my purse and couldn't turn my phone or camera on. But oh well! And the party continued...

scenic pictures for the win!

SANGRIA :)

hell yeah DJs

resting point

before the jellyfish...

ummm

USD IN IBIZA

After the epic boat ride, our last night in Ibiza we went to esParadis, a club near San Antoni's port. This club was super different, you walk in and the lights were on so you could pretty much make out everyone's faces, the dance floor was in this white, round arena that tiered downward, and every now and then they would spray this white fog stuff that smelled like baby powder. Weird. It was decorated in such a way that I seriously thought I was in Wonderland with Alice. This was actually my favorite club there...the music was awesome and the people were ready to party, aka I had the best time ever. After that, it was time to say goodbye to the wonderful land of party people and head back to Madrid.

So those are my two biggest updates, other than that I've just been hangin out and adjusting back to the normal life in Madrid. One of the greatest things I've discovered here is el Parque de Buen Retiro. This park is enormous and soooo unbelievably beautiful, it's the perfect date spot. It's got gardens, sports fields, fountains you can gaze at, fountains with lakes that you can row boats in, grassy fields to share a picnic with someone, EVERYTHING. It's got everything you need to have a romantically good time. Another gem I've found in Madrid is churros con chocolate. Mmmmm it is a slice of heaven I tell you. One night me and my girls were supposed to go out clubbing but the line was too long and we had to pay to get in so we said fuck it, and headed over to San Gines Chocolatería right behind Joy. We got two plates of churros at first, but when we saw what porras looked like (the huge version of churros) we decided to get another plate of those too, with no shame whatsoever. IT WAS SO GOOD. My mouth is salivating just thinking about it. I'm desperately trying to find a way to ship these heavenly creations back home when I leave but I'm not too sure how that'll work out, we'll see.

garden in Parque de Retiro...I have such beautiful friends

step 1: once the churros are gone, lick the chocolate

step 2: after licking fails to satisfy, devour the chocolate

step 3: you can choose to clean up with a napkin or hand, whatever is available first

Oh and one last thing, while the whole world and their mom is at Oktoberfest this weekend, all of us USD kids who stayed in Madrid went to go see Afrojack for only €23! We got to the venue at midnight and talked to some peeps who were all either American or British (apparantly Afrojack isn't that big in Spain?) which was refreshing to meet new people other than USD but weird not to hear Spanish. I met the sweetest girl from London and other people from UC Irvine and Santa Barbara. Eventually we went into the club and waited FOREVER for Afrojack to play (I was getting a little nervous at one point) but then he finally came on and kiiiiilllleddddd it. He played the best songs ever; I honestly did not stop dancing the. entire. time. Before I knew it, it was 5 in the morning and I was still dancing. At one point I even tried to stop dancing but nope. Didn't happen. I could dance 24/7 for the rest of my life. After Afrojack finished his set, this other DJ came on and did his thing, and he looked EXACTLY like Justin Bieber but with blonde hair. It was kinda funny but once he started jammin' Avicii's "Levels" and Swedish House Mafia's "One" and finally a Red Hot Chili Peppers remix (I DIED) I was hooked...it was such a great time. We finally left in the early a.m. to the metro, got home at around 7, and passed the fuck out until 5 pm. It has never felt so good to sleep.