here i am on friday night

As if Friday nights couldn´t get more relaxed...it´s 8 pm and already I´m in my pajamas typing away on my blog. Who´s jealous?

You see, I missed my general Friday night activity--which is paddle lessons with Pilar. I was on my way in from Madrid to make it back just in time, but of course the trip took longer than expected (always) and I didn´t make it. But that´s okay. I arrived still dressed in what I was wearing yesterday afternoon, reaking of cigarette smoke from a Thursday night out, and frankly, feeling quite tired.

For those unaware, because I had never heard of paddle before I came here, it is an extremely easy version of tennis. It´s played on a smaller court, with smaller yet thicker rackets that do most of the work for you. Although still frustrating for someone as unathletic and uncoordinated such as myself, it is relatively easy to get the ball over the net with out exerting too much effort. The majority of the calories I burn while playing are probably from laughing at how ridiculously terrible both Pilar and I are.

Anyyyyyyway, I decided to go out in Madrid last night and it was a fun time indeed. We went to this place that had live music, something I had never seen in a club, and I was very excited about this prospect. However, I quickly realized that the band was HORRIBLE--if you can imagine, a spanish version of the Jonas brothers. It was quite painful to listen to, and dancing wasn´t even an option. But, who cares about my opinion--the Spaniards were loving it. Which is fine. I waited paitently for the band to finish (at 3 am) and we danced the rest of the night away.

Today I woke up and decided to meet up with an old friend from college who I just connected with last week. His family also lives here and he has been in and out of the country for the past couple years teaching English (illegally). For anyone interested--apparently the customs people at the airport are very relaxed here. If you want, you can just hop right on over and make a killing teaching English, and cross your fingers that you don´t get unlucky when you finally decide to head back to wherever it is you came from. Anyhow, it was a really beautiful crisp autumn day, and I mosied around the city with Marc while he filled my brain with random tidbits about Madrid, traveling, and life as he knows it. We eventually ended up at Retiro park--the most wonderfully fantastic place in Madrid. I am obsessed with this place, and spent all day cursing the Spanish mail system for not having yet delivered the camera my Aunt Carol and Uncle Kent sent me nearly two weeks ago. The trees were every shade of fall, and I was feeling so inspired by the sheer beauty of nature within the city. We roamed over to the Palacio de Cristal--this huge greenhouse that apparently used to shelter the ¨phillipine lillies¨ (does Marc make things up sometimes? Maybe) but is now a space for vague modern art--one display being a jar of asparagus sitting in the center of a compass, topped with a piece of poo and a metal rod balanced on this peice of poo. I didn´t get it. Nonetheless, this greenhouse was beautiful and it made me think of my mother, who would appreciate it more than anyone else I know.

Well, I must be off. Tonight Isabela and I are going to watch Twilight, as I just finished the first book (in Spanish!!!) and this week the second movie of the series will come out in Madrid. If anyone is interested in reading an easy book in Spanish, I highly reccommend this teeny bopper series. It´s 500 pages, and I finished in a week.