Mi fin de semana

Warning: This entry is very long.

Even though I have suddenly become accutely aware that people are in fact reading this blog, I am going to do my best to avoid stage fright. Luckily for me, and I suppose you too, my weekend was just too good not to talk about.

On Friday night, I had lessons with the four children as usual then we had dinner. After dinner I surrendered the modem to the children for the evening. Jorge and I watched "What A Girl Wants" starring Amanda Bynes. We watched it with dubbed Spanish and English subtitles. It was weird watching a movie for teenaged girls with an eleven year old boy, but since we didn't have any other options it was ok. After the movie, Javier gave me back the modem. I talked with Flynn for a little while and then went to bed.

Saturday morning I woke up, had breakfast, and walked to the train station. I made my way to first english class. It took me about two hours to get there. I had to walk thirty minutes to the train station, take two different trains, then walk ten minutes to Gemma's house. As I made my way down Gemma's street I was looking for the house number. When I found it there were no unit numbers and there was no intercom system near the door. Luckily one of Gemma's neighbors was sticking her head out her second story window. She asked me (in Spanish) who I was looking for. I answered, "Gemma." She said (in Spanish) that there was no one there by that name. I confirmed the street name. After a couple minutes Gemma came out and asked if I was Hannah. Lucky for me, I am! The old neighbor lady asked if Gemma's name was Gemma and Gemma said, "Of course!" Gemma thought it was funny that the lady didn't know her name. She wondered what the lady thought her name was. The lesson itself was very low key. We just chatted for an hour and a half. We talked about her work, my work, traveling, Spanish vs. American child naming habits... We made plans to meet again next Saturday.

After the lesson I took the Metro to Sol. I found a spot on the wall of a building and leaned against it while I ate my lunch (cheese, bread, and apple). Sol was packed! It was a sunny saturday afternoon and everyone was enjoying being outside. The people watching was fantastic. After lunch I went to El Corte Ingles which is a huge chain store that is all over Spain. They have everything: books, clothes, food, sporting good, hardware supplies, etc. I went to the kids book section to practice my reading in spanish. I could understand the little kids' books. I had previously tried to read the first Harry Potter book but after referring the spanish/english dictionary about a hundred times for jut the first page, I thought I better start smaller. I read a few books then made my way back outside.

There is a great pastary shop in Sol. I love it. Dangerously cheap dangerously delicious pastaries. Yum! I bought one and ate it while I walked. I eventually ended up at the palace. I found a bench and started writing in my journal about nothing in particular. The sun felt great and again, the people watching was fantastic. There are so many different kinds of people just wandering around or sitting near the fountain. After a while I laid down in the sun, using my back pack as a pillow. I took a nap. It was great.

When I woke up it was time for me to start making my way back to Sol. I was a little groggy when I met my friends at 5:30pm. While on our trip to Cordoba last weekend Jenny and I decided to organize a scavenger hunt in the center of Madrid. We had seven people (including ourselves) show up. On team A was a Hungarian girl, a French guy, a Spanish guy, and me (an American). On team B was a Spanish guy, a Mexican guy (who grew up in Austin, TX), and Jenny (an American). It was a fun mix. What we did was we had each team write a list of twenty things to do within 15 minutes walking distance from Sol. Then we traded lists. We had two hours to do as many things on the list as we could. Some of the things that were on the lists were: giving a kiss to a grandma, selling something in your possession, trading a Euro for any other currancy, taking a group photo with twenty strangers, getting five hugs from strangers in front of the palace... Photo or video documentation of the team doing each thing had to be shown at the end. My favorites were singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in the middle of Plaza Mayor (and having to teach my teammates the song along the way) and seeing the pictures of Jenny kissing grandmas (the grandmas looked SO happy!). After the game was over we met up and found a place to have tapas. We ate while we tallied points and looked at pictures. It was fun. In the end my team didn't win but no one really cared by that point. We sat and ate and chatted for quite a while. Then we split up to get ready for a party that night.

Jenny, Carlos, and I went to her apartment so she could change for the party. I was too tired to go to the party so I just rode with them on the Metro and got off at a different stop. The bus ride home was nice and quiet. I made it home and rolled into bed at about 1am. I had not planned on staying out that late, but I had so much fun, it was worth it.

On Sunday, I woke up without an alarm. I love waking up without an alarm. There are so few days that. I woke up at about 8:30am. I relaxed in bed and tried to figure out how I wanted to spend my day. The way I figured it is I had two options. A) stay home and be lazy, save money, and hang out with the family or B) take the bus to Madrid and participate in a Hash.

I interrupt my randomly written blog to let you know what a hash is. Hash House Harriers (HHH) is generally referred to as "A Drinking Club With a Running Problem." Hashers are people who participate in the Hashes. A Hash is a run. Two "Hares" set a course using flour as markers to tell the Hashers which way to run. Some of the routes lead to dead ends though. So basically a large group of people runs around following a trail of flour on the ground. Only sometimes the trail ends and they have to turn back. At the end of the run all the Hashers and Hares meet in a large circle. In this circle Hashers are called out for various infractions (such as getting a bad hair cut or defiling the trail) their punishment is a they have to drink some beer. First timers must drink a beer. Basically beer is drunken by many and random songs usually making sexual references are sung by all.

Ok. Back to my decision. I stayed in bed watching a movie (The Notebook) for about an hour before I finally forced myself to get ready for the Hash. I first heard about Hashing while I was at community college in Tucson, but had never had the guts to show up for one. Well apparently I was feeling gutsy, so I went. I had a quick breakfast, put on my running clothes, grabbed my backpack and headed for the bus stop.

Once the bus arrived at Plaza Castilla I had a ten minute walk to the bar that everyone was meeting at. I was very early (by about 45 minutes) so I walked around the neighborhood. As I made my way back to the bar I saw a girl about my age leaving the Metro station wearing running clothes. She was heading the same direction I was, so I wasn't technically following her... but I sort of was. She went straight to Larry's Bar. I arrived right behind her and we introduced ourselves. Before long about a dozen people had gathered ready to go to the Hash. We carpooled to Alcala de Henares. I rode in a car with an American guy who has been living abroad for over 20 years, a very very chatty Dutch lady, and a Canadian lady from Nova Scotia. I sat in the back seat with my fellow North American. We chatted and I decided I would stick close to her until I had a clue what was going on.

Once we arrived at the CP (Car Park) we started unloading coolers of soda and beer. There were several ladies sitting in folding chairs and lots of people hugging and greeting one another. Everyone was very nice and welcoming to me. We all got in a large circle so that they could welcome everyone and explain the "rules" to the newbies. Once the explanations were made everyone just took off up the hill. Some walked others ran. I started off running with my buddy, who by the way has run four marathon and countless half marathons. We ran for a bit, took a few wrong turns, but mostly we just stayed with the crowd and let them find the trails. I walked when I needed/wanted to and jogged when I felt like it. There were people in front of me and behind me. I felt absolutly no pressure to perform (especially since being competitive is an offense punishable by bear).

The course was beautiful. I am kicking myself for not bringing my camera. I hope that someone will post pictures on the website at some point. We ran along hills sprouting with green crop shoots. The green against the blue blue sky was just breath taking. At one point along the way, the flour trail told runners to stop and look left. We could see all of Madrid from where we were. It was great. Sometimes I ran alone. Sometimes I walked with others. One lady I walked with is from Scotland and one guy I walked with is from the States and graduated from my almamatar (NAU) back in the 70s.

At the end of the run (which ended up being about ten miles) everyone relaxed drank beer drinks or soft drinks (I drank fanta) and waited for everyone to return. Once everyone had gathered again we formed another circle. At one point I had to step forward, reintroduce myself and down a small mug of beer. If you do not finish your beer you must pour the remaining contents of your mug over your head. I finished mine. One other notable offense was that anyone who wears new shoes to a hash must remove one shoe, pour a beer in it, and drink said beer directly from the shoe. It is both a disgusting and entertaining thing to watch. I will not be wearing any new shoes to the hash anytime soon.

After the ceremonies were done about 25 of us headed to a local restaurant for dinner. We chatted and filled our bellies with food. I was given a quiz to test that one guy apparently gives to all Americans. I'm proud to say I passed and impressed those around me by apparently proving that I am not a dumb blonde (HAH! As if there was any doubt.) After lunch we car pooled back to Larry's Bar (which apparently the Hasher's second home). Larry told me to come in a have a drink so I did. I chatted (I do a lot of chatting... all in English) with my new friends for a couple hours then headed home. I got home a little after 10pm. It took me a while to get to sleep because I kept replaying my weekend in my head.

This weekend was one of my best in Spain so far. I met new people, was plenty active, got some fresh air... I could go on and on, but since this entry is already ridiculously long, I'll stop.