When you are describing a person, it is acceptable to use the word "MONO(A)" o "MONISIMO(A)" according to Ana. You never use monisimo to describe the weather. To be honest, I never thought you used the word mono at all because we learned in high school that it meant MONKEY. So until really 2 days ago, when Laura and I finally couldn't get over the confusion of Ana's references to her grandchildren as monisimo and decided to look the word up, we assumed she was calling them monkeys. JUST KEEP THIS TID-BIT IN MIND AS YOU READ ON.
So back at home after my long walk, I hung around Manolo's study for a little while until his daughter, Cristina (the mother we were supposed to originally live with), came in and said she had heard that our hair appliances no funcionan (don't work) here. This might also be a good time to tell you, mom, that I think I blew the cord to the Magic Jack. Woops. Anyway, Cristina offered to give us one of her daughter's 2 planchas de pelo (hair irons), so we were very happy. I went out last night with pelo rizado (curly hair) and was quite unhappy, so this made my day.
I soon got a call from my friend Robin, who lives around the corner, to go with her al centro (to the Center) of the city. And since it was sunny and in the low 70s, I was up for it. We walked for a while and made it to el Parque de María Luisa, a HUGE landmark with beautiful architecture, museums, small cafés, fountains, and wide open areas of grass and trees. We explored a little bit and walked up the stairs of some of the places they will be taking us on our city visits, like el Museo Arqueologico. They are definitely going to make a full day out of that trip because it was HUUUGE. We hung out on the steps of one of the art museums for a little, when I got a call from Laura on her new móvil (cell phone), saying she was done with orientation, so we met up with her and headed back. We were cutting it kind of close to our 2:30 mandatory comida! Which happened to be very good: sopa lenteja (lentil soup-- I think she was trying to explain to us that we were getting IRON, but she didn't know the word... so she got up and started pointing to the window, etc. to show us literally she meant "iron") and pescado (fish) cooked in a delicious sauce.. kind of had an onion flavor? And, of course, FRUTA (fruit). It's really hard to say no to Ana when she just begins peeling las manzanas (apples), las peras (pears), y, por supuesto las mandarinas (of course, manderins). I think my skin is going to turn orange by the end of this semester. Then we watched a little bit of news and it was time to return to the most dreaded tasks: la hora de deshacer todas las maletas (time to unpack the rest of the suitcases that we just left sitting around the floor). She was definitely not thrilled with the fact that we hadn't finished this task, so we just got down to it. I decided I really needed my siesta afterward, so I lay down when Laura left to return to the college to finalize her schedule. And I slept... and slept... and then Laura came home and she slept... durmimos hasta las 9 (we slept until 9)! I think our bodies just need the full week to recuperate completely.
And then, as always on time a las 9:30, oímos "Niñas! Comemos! Sari! Laura! Ven para la hamburguesa!" (Let's go! Come eat dinner: hamburgers!). And were we in for something... see, it was Vicki's night off so Ana cooked. And let's just say that this didn't look like your typical hamburguesa with respect to color, thickness, and consistency. At least the french fries were good. She fried the papas (potatos) herself! For dessert, she peeled a thousand pieces of fruit, and just kept handing me more and more. We tried an interesting thing, which I didn't really understand-- it was like pretty tough and comes from a fruit similar to an apple, that apparently no existe en los EEUU (we don't have in the US). Laura did a nice description of the consistency as that of those sunkists that people throw at the Bar Mitzvah boy on bema... And we were sincerely llenas (full), but she proceeded to fetch FLAN from la cocina (the kitchen), a type of pastry that tastes like caramel and has the consistency of jello. We definitely had some interesting dinner conversation, and I think Laura and I were on the verge of spewing our water all over the table when Ana inquired if el opuesto (the opposite) of SKINNY was FATTY (pronounced FAH-TEE). FATTY FATTY FATTY. And we tried to explain to her that calling someone "fatty," is not generally acceptable, but then we gave up because she couldn't understand us between our efforts to gasp for air.
After our sides were aching from a combination of laughing and feeling like we were going to bust open from eating so much, Laura y yo subimos las escaleras (came upstairs) to commence the getting ready process. Our program was hosting some kind of get together at a bar, bribing the students with 2 free drink tickets, so we figured we'd at least give it a shot. By 11:30, we shared un taxi with Robin and her roommate to head over to the bar. The three of them climbed into the back so I was stuck communicating with the driver. I received a nice lesson on how to drive a stick shift because I decided to preguntarle (ask him) if it was a hard thing to do. At a red light, he took out a pen and paper and began drawing a diagram in the shape of an "H" and me explicó (explained to me) all the intricacies of the art of stick shift. Everyone in the back was hysterical, but I must say I am impressed with how well I am speaking! So, we roll up to the bar and struggled to push through the door seeing as how SMALL and cramped the place was! We literally could not move, and it was a struggle to make our way towards where they were serving drinks... in paper cups... which assimilated into the taste of the already Sangria-gone-bad. Laura and I managed to find the Abby's, and then I was introduced to one of the girls Laura met earlier. We lasted there for a good 30-40 minutes, I would say, which is no longer than we can usually last at a given bar at Cornell.
So around 1ish, Laura and I left the bar with a pack of other people, including the Abby's. There was a pack of people following us, which was kind of uncomfortable because we didn't know where we were going. We walked along Calle Betis for some time and just peeked in and out of different barres (bars). Some of the places made us feel completely out of place because they were all Spanish, and i think the rest of the pack was getting frustrated so they broke away... and then there were cuatro (4). Laura, the Abby's, and I knew of one other place that was claimed to be MUY DIVERTIDO (a lot of fun) and se llama Buddha Bar (it's called Buddha Bar). The only problema: none of us were familiar with neither where we were nor where we needed to go. So, the 4 of us treked, relying on a combination of Laura's blackberry, the Abbys' wit, and my ability to comunicarme (speak) with Spaniards on the streets--
this sounds a LOT sketchier than it really was!
So about an hour later, with blisters on feet, we arrived at Buddha Bar! It was, like everything here, HUGE. Like I mean 4 different levels full of people, bars, and loud music... and a lot of cigarette smoking. Each level seemed like a different age crowd de gente (of people), with music and style of dance kind of catered accordingly. Our age group was mixed between the top two, so the four of us bajamos las escaleras (went up the stairs) and started to mingle. There was definitely a healthy mix of Americans (including people from many other programs) and Spaniards. I thought it was funny that all of the Americans who introduced themselves to us would approach us speaking in Spanish, with clearly nervous breaks in speech and the most TOOLISH, quizzical looks..
"Umm.. Uds. um.. son ameri..canas?" Uh.. BYE!!! WE'RE NOT INTERESTED!
We had a weird encounter buscando el baño (looking for the bathroom)... some dude kind of grabbed me by the arm: "Hablas Ingles?" Yes? Sí? He then told me he was from Florencia and that I was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen.. so I kept walking. Sorry, but that's creepy.
At around 2:30, the Abby's were ready to call it a night, but Laura and I still had a little juice left in us, as per siesta. So we bid them adiós and kept mingling. At one point, we were approached by the 2 most guapo (handsome) Spaniards we'd ever seen, and they were very nice. We gathered that their names were Raul y Cristian... Raul spoke very funny broken English and is from Murcia, whereas Cristian is from Alicante and speaks no English! Mr. Hodum and everyone else in my Spanish class in high school would've appreciated my meeting someone from Alicante because that was my obsesión por cualquiera razón (obsession for whatever reason). Anyway, we gathered that they are both in the military, training, and are professional sky divers. Viajan a todas las partes de Europa para competir contra otros equipos (they travel all over Europe to compete in these sky diving competitions). They showed us a video on their phone of them jumping out of a plane... don't think that will ever be on my To-Do list. But talking to them was such good practice-- I'm so glad all these people don't realize I am exploiting them for speaking practice.
And so something in us decided to inquire about the meaning of Mono because we thought it would be funny to have them try to explain that it didn't mean monkey. "Mone-kay? No.. No es Mone-kay! [insert their hand gestures]" This definitely doesn't sound as funny as it really was, but Laura and I were dying! I think we just enjoy hearing people say that we are MONISIMA. So that went on for like half an hour more, and then Laura and I decided that at 4:00, it was time to head home! The party was still going on, and that is going to take some getting used to, but we have all semester to adaptarse a este costumbre (acclimate/get used to this custom).
Especially because the bars at Cornell close at 1 (sadly, our libraries are the only 24 hour institutions)
So Laura and I said adiós, hopped in a cab, and directed the driver A BETIS!! Getting back into the house wasn't such a challenge, because I had taken lessons from Vicki the night before about how to use las llaves (the keys) to get back into the two gates and front door to the house.
And so, we collapsed at around 5 and slept until about 12... LOTS of peace and quiet -- I think Ana knew we would not be joining her for el desayuno esta mañana!
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