around

I just listened to a message left on my cell's voice mail by some señora and her husband who apparently called, were confused about the fact that they had reached someone named "Laura", and decided to talk about it for four minutes without remembering to hang up. They kept repeating my voice mail message over and over sarcastically... like it's my fault they called my fucking phone! Hahaha... soooo random.... I hate this fucking phone. Did I tell you guys about this already? How I keep getting text messages and phone calls for some lady who evidently isn't paying her bills? Doña Isabel de los Santos Sánchez, I hate you.

Well since I'm here, it's adventure-telling time: on my week off in February, after going to Carnaval with Drew, I headed down to Madrid for a couple days, where I stayed at Rubén's place. I got to see his band rehearse and ride around Madrid in Rubén's awesome little car, heavy metal a-playin'... weather was too bad for a repeat of the motorcycle tour. Since he was working during the day on Thursday, I hung out with his German roommate and her two friends. And Mario. :P On Thursday night I hung out with Sam, Tyler, and Marco (couchsurfers from the States who'd visited me in San Sebastian) in some mega-mansion in a mega-nice area of Madrid. The girl's dad, whose house it was, works for the American embassy. Niiiiiice. We also hit a jazz bar, and called it a night.

On Friday I went down to Tomelloso to hang out with José Luis. He showed me the town, we hit up the Lagunas de Ruidera - which I had been to in 2007 when there was much less water - got some food and drink, and went out with some of his gal pals. On Saturday we went over to Ciudad Real (where I studied in 2006-07) to meet up with a big group of his buddies from Horcajo (his hometown). We (ok, they) played poker for a couple hours, got tapas from La Cabaña, and took the bus (what an adventure... no one ever takes the bus in Ciudad Real) to the Fito & Fitipaldis concert in the Recinto Ferial. Big exhibition building full of Spanish people holdings huge beers in plastic cups. And singing Fito. It was entertaining enough. Afterwards it was off to La Fontana (oh, some things never change).

Oh, I didn't mention that on the streets of Ciudad Real I met Rafa, Mark, AND Julián at different points of the night. I think that's everyone I know that lives there, so, not bad. :P

The next day it was a loooong trip home on three hours of sleep.

And that was that! This past weekend I went to Bilbao for a Couchsurfing "Meeting Mundiala 2010". Friday night we had a mingling social at a bar/event place called the Hikaateneo; Saturday we ate at a sidrería (pretty lame compared to the real deals we have here in Gipuzkoa, but the food was good), relaxed for a bit, and then it was drinking-game time back in the Hikaateneo. We learned some dice game called Kinito, which I quickly spurned for the much more fun bounce-the-coin-into-the-roll-of-tape game. BRING IT, people. Then we went out on the town: I know I was in four different bars, but I could not for the life of me ever find them again. I ended up sneaking into a friend's hostel (not that hard, considering there was no one at reception) and sleeping in an empty bed rather than attempting to find my host's house at night. And finally on Sunday, I ate a bunch of delicious delicious pintxos and did my best to keep warm and awake until we all drove home again. I'd gone with four other people from Donosti (Gonzalo, Ana, Iñaki, and Sandra) in a car, and on the way back we were grooooovin' to all the best commercial hits. Oh Lady Gaga.... :)

Donosti is lame for couchsurfing, but I can't really blame it. It's just small and tranquil. Iñaki says he's going to try to liven it up... wish him luck.