Our apartment sits on the outskirts of Madrid, much closer in proximity to the town of
Alacala de Henares. Our nightly routine usually consists of wandering to downtown
Alcala, purchasing an hour at the
Internet cafe, then aimlessly perusing the streets like lost children, searching for people who speak English.
For everybody else, this nightly journey is usually embellished by the consumption of alcohol, which results in moments like this.
These two young men got distracted by the opportunity of arson, and thus a temporary schism formed in the group, as Brock, Glenn, and myself continued into town without hesitation. It was later than usual and the
Internet cafe wasn't an option so we sat in the plaza as the brisk nightly quickly grew stale.
We soon decided to return home, but only a few minutes after our departure we were reunited with Joel and Adam, which seemed to inject some hope into what previously looked to be a desperate evening. Glenn sat on a bench talking to a statue of Sancho Panza (Cervantes was born in
Alcala) and we kept our fingers crossed that some Americans would walk by.
They did.
The utterance of a frustrated "
Goddammit!" from amidst a small group of girls was all it took and we instantly hurled proof of our native language in their general direction, hoping that they were as bored as us, or at least interested in talking. They were, and we lamented about only things Americans in Spain can-ham isn't that good, mullets are ridiculous, mopeds are annoying etc. The girls were students here in
Alcala, and they were headed off to a club, we followed them, trying our
damnedest to pull Joel and Adam away from their new friends who spoke a little English and knew a catchy song about communism.
The club was decent enough but for whatever reason I didn't really enjoy myself. When 4 AM rolled around I finally did what I had been wanting to do for the past couple of hours and walked home.
There were no stars in the sky, a frustrated Spaniard was enveloped in the hood of his broken down car, squealing horns blasting out of his speakers, hopefully warming his heart but surely doing nothing to combat the unforgiving morning. I turned down my street, ignoring the hookers' heckle from across the corner.
I was the first one home, so I sat up waiting as the rest trickled in. We evaluated the night, and soon slipped into reminiscing mode. The echo of the "old days" came back around again for some reason. I don't know what time we went to bed.
Of course all of this was done in celebration of Danny
Roop's birthday which was on Friday. So everyone send him some money for his birthday so he can afford to buy me something nice for Christmas.
I am thinking about doing some more retroactive posting about France. Does anyone object to this practice or does our readership not find the sweet nectar of continuity as sacred as I do?