My creatures are here!

My creatures are here! I left for Madrid on Thursday, thinking I could book some hotels for Monday and have a look at the 3 storey Salvador Bachiller store but I didn't realise that it was a public holiday and everything would be closed. Was very cranky. Starbucks was open though and El Corte Ingles so I spent a happy hour browsing and buying books, then went to Starbucks to drink and read. I actually had a bit of trouble finding accommodation- I went to six places that were full before finding one free. And I was worried I'd have to book into a 5 star hotel for the night (what a shame that would have been...)

On Thursday night, I went out to buy a bottle of water, and saw huge crowds lining the streets so I joined them without knowing what they were waiting for, and it turned out to be a procession. These people dressed in purple Ku Klux Klan outfits were walking down the street, some carrying crosses, some with chains on their feet, with some priests swinging incense, women dressed in black with black veils (actually, they looked a bit like reformed hookers but I think it's a bit sacrilegious to say that) and marching bands, plus two platformy things with candles and the figures of Jesus and Mary on them. It was interesting to start off with, but kept going for around an hour and a half, with the same purple people, same hooker-like women, same priests and got very monotonous. I was waiting for the self-flagellating people to start whipping themselves as they walked down the street but they never came. Very disappointed. Some Spanish women in the crowd were getting very aggressive because they kept getting pushed around by the people around them and started abusing everyone.

After that, I joined a twenty minute queue for a bocadillo de calamares which wasn't really worth the wait. I liked being by myself though, because I could do what I wanted without worrying if someone else was getting bored.

On Friday, I got up early because Mum's and Allen's flight got in a 10:30 but nothing was open for breakfast so I had to go back to Starbucks and get another chai latte. I was so happy to see them walk through the gates, I nearly peed in my pants.

We went out for tapas last night, then Allen and I joined Javier and his friends at the drinking bar place and went bar hopping. Had a relatively early night though because my creature was tired but we ate a potato before we went home (WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I love those potatoes).

Salty John

There's this sausage-like thing here called salchichon, except Breda thought it was salty john at first. It's sort of like salami but with squishy fat globules inside. I never imagined eating fat could feel so good. There's something else that's very similar called fuet (I think) that's covered with a white mould that tastes like the stuff on brie. At least, I think it's mould. I actually found green spots of mould on top of the white mould, which I wasn't sure was edible or not, but I ate it anyway.

We went out for churros and hot chocolate last Monday. Churros are these doughy sticks or twists that have been fried and drowned in sugar. You dip them into the hot chocolate. The hot chocolate in Spain is very different to Australia's. Here it's more like a hot, chocolately mousse that's served in a coffee cup. And in the supermarkets, if you want to buy a hot chocolate mix to make at home, you can either get Nesquik or Cola Cao which is humungously popular. There'll be around ten tins of Nesquik and the rest of the aisle will be stocked with Cola Coa in around twenty different sizes.

This is a photo of our night out last night. I discovered that if I put gel in my hair every day, after around three days it will sit how I want it to sit. But after three days I need to wash it or when I sleep the gel will glue my head to my pillow. The guy with the moustachy/beardy growth is Javier's best friend, Nacho. Every time I heard his name I felt hungry. I'm going to make nachos for Allen when he comes.

Dijonnaise

I bought this delectable dijon mustard mayonnaise from my local supermarket. You can eat it with anything- eggs, spinach, salad, bread, meat, spaghetti, by itself (if you want to be really gross)... Anyway, since I've been too lazy to cook, I chopped up 1 kg of carrots and I've been using it as dip and eating carrots for dinner. Can't wait till my mum arrives. She cooks really well. It will be such a change to eat decent food again. It's not that I can't cook, I just can't be bothered.

I got a haircut last week. It was a very scary experience because I took in a photo of the haircut I wanted and told the hair dresser not to deviate from it at all and when she finished cutting it, she had given me a mullet. I made her cut it off. So now my hair's a lot shorter than it was supposed to be and when I wake up in the morning I look like Sideshow Bob.

Went out last night with Javier and his friends. Emily didn't come because she wanted to pack. She and Mel are going to Granada and Seville for Semana Santa (they left this morning). Breda's going to Madrid and Granada too I think, with Katherine (from Germany). We went to a bar with happy hour where I choked on a lolly in the bathroom and when I came out everyone was really concerned and I said I'd taken a pill instead of saying I'd eaten a lolly. Sort of like the time I said I had lots of shit instead of saying I was really afraid.

On the way home, some drunk idiots called me Japanese and asked me to go with them, so I told them to shove it up their arses in Spanish (obscene language courtesy of Javier) and everyone in the street started laughing.

Got home at 6:30 in the morning, then spoke to Allen on skype till a bit after 8. He was asleep, the lazy bum. Apparently I'd woken him up. He and my mum arrive on Friday. YAY!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!! YAY!!!!! I'm meeting them in Madrid. I've been in Spain for 2 months and 2 days now.

Miss Espana

Last night they had the Miss Espana pageant on television. It was so exciting; a defining moment in my life when I realised I wanted to be beautiful and tall and fake-bronzed with long dark brown hair and look like a clone. Ha!

It was absolutely hysterical. All the girls looked exactly the same except for this one girl, Miss Wherever who hadn't been fake-tanned properly so during the swimsuit strut, she came on with an tiny black bikini, pale white limbs and a face as dark as an Aussie farmer's. We knew she wouldn't get through that round. Her doom was set. Aside from her, I kept getting all the girls confused because they seriously looked exactly the same- like Barbie dolls that had been put in the oven. Normally in beauty pageants there's always one girl who's slightly too fat, one who's slightly too tall, too short, doesn't have the right hair length... in this one it didn't matter who won because they were EXACTLY THE SAME. There was one girl who went down the catwalk and when she got to the end, did the full head toss, pout and pose. I nearly peed in my pants laughing at the cheesiness and cliche.

Miss Malaga won and burst into tears. I was hoping one of the losers would cry. But on the whole I don't think I approve of it being on TV. I felt very inadequate after watching all these brown, slim girls with beautiful long hair parading around (sort of like watching a dancing troupe of inverted, groomed mops). If I have children, I will never let them watch such bosh. The elimination process was weird too. In Australia, on reality TV, they usually call out the names of the people who've won so the ones who are left become more and more stressed but here they did it in alphabetical order, so they lined them up and were like 'Miss Alicante, yep, Miss Bilbao, sorry you lose...' And Miss Espana? Why not Miss Spain or Senorita Espana? Just another indication of the pervasive and evil forces of franchises I suppose. Bah to that.

There's a Mr Espana too. That aired on television last Friday. Such a shame I missed it. I imagine it would have been reminiscent of 'Zoolander'. Cheers to orange mocha frappucinos.

My first church service

I went to church this morning. Because of the time difference, at exactly the same time I was at church here, my normal church in Sydney was starting its service too.

So- I understood nothing. Well, hardly anything, except for 'Amazing Grace' in Spanish which we sang. I picked up a few ideas, but most of it went completely over my head. It was like 'blah blah blah, word of God, blah blah, suffering, blah blah blah blah blah Jesus something cross, blah blah...' Very discouraging for me. My Spanish must be atrocious. I could pick up most of the ideas in the bible readings, but they read so fast that by the time I figured out the first two verses, they were already up to verse seven. The people were very friendly though. There was no one under 40 years old, and there were only about 20 people there. Apparently if you go to Madrid and Barcelona, the Christian population there is a lot younger and the churches are a lot bigger. I'm not surprised though- Spain is very Catholic, especially in the smaller towns where people tend to be more traditional.

It was a very novel experience. We had communion, and the pastor actually broke up a loaf of bread into four pieces and then you pick a bit off that. And the communion wine was sweet and white. I enjoyed it immensely, especially the singing because there weren't any musical instruments or leaders so everyone just sang together as harmoniously as possible. There's a Presbyterian chruch about twenty minutes walk from me which I think I'll go to next week and if it's the same (and I think it will be because I don't understand anything anyway) I'll just keep coming to this one which is five minutes walk from my flat.