April 2, Day 75: But Actually My Life's Been Like Trying To Hold On To A Torpedo

Sorry guys, I had to do something for April Fool's Day.

Anyway, the last time I updated was from my bed (for the weekend) at Miss Kate's in Belgium. This time I'm updating from my bed at de Kasteel in Oudland. What can I say, I'm a fan of tradition with a spin.

At this point, school is getting into major crunch time. In the next two weeks, I have: papers (2 final papers, a summary, and a response), a presentation, loads of reading, and upcoming exams. Meanwhile, tomorrow night is Castle Cabaret, an activity that has had little to no face time on Kasteel Koffiehuis so far but beyond oodles of attention outside of the internet (not counting facebook for organization, all as well it should be). My life has been a lot more IRL than online lately and while it's been a year since my media fast, the inanity of bumbling around on my favorite websites has lost a lot of its magic.

I'm part of the production team for that, so two weeks ago was an 8pm-3am time span of auditions and casting; now we've whittled it down even more, but it looks even better for it. I'm choreographing one piece (Strongest Suit) officially, which I've just found today is going to be the finale so no pressure there obviously, and directing another piece (Take Me Or Leave Me), which has been a bit more dependent on my leadership than I initially bargained for. That's life though, so why not roll with the punches?

Other than those two behind-the-scenes parts, I'm also performing in When You're Good To Mama as a backup dancer, in Strongest Suit as a backup singer/dancer, and an Avenue Q piece as a (basically) soloist. Things have been a bit busy, but others have it way more stressful - Lane is the overall Director/Producer along with performing in several pieces and Olivia has a 7 minute song to choreograph (along with other performing/directing roles on top of that).

As is it, I just got back from rehearsing WYGTM and SS. It's 1:30 here but I will finish this post.

I know it's been almost a full month now, but back to The Spring Break Tale.

First up, I definitely got some of the details wonky on the last update, but that's what storytime back home is for. Somewhere in this big Spanish mess (I think Sunday) I went flamenco dancing (not just flamenco bar-ing) and had one of the best simple chorizo sandwiches I'll probably ever have.

Monday, March 5

The Trip

After lunch, we went to the bus station to get our tickets ahead of time. Unfortunately, every single ticket was gone. Well, there were four, but Alyssa and her group of (grand total) four got those. With a hodgepodge group of me, Mel, Lucas, Tim, Sean, Najah, and Z, we trekked and searched our way around the various Madrid transport systems until we found an overnight train to Barcelona. Long story short, exhausting but funny (mostly from my inability to speak Spanish). My trio got back to the hotel around 6, helped Tim make sangria for our dinner picnic, then (after I ran for food) the 7 of us talked in the park until 10pm, then shipped out for the train station. We ran into Scott and Candace, settled into the train and as I was lucky enough to land a single seat by the window, I passed out for the next 9 hours of travel. There was definitely some train drama but it barely woke me longer than 5 minutes at a time.

Tuesday, March 6

We found our respective ways to our hostels, ours being a bit infuriating as it was a sister location to the actual checkin, then dumped everything on our beds and found lunch at the sushi place down the road.

Yup, sushi. With noodles. Guess where the owner's from? Brazil. Guess what she speaks? Portuguese.

But I just started learning Spanish AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH


Granted, this helped me get used to Portuguese for the last few days of Spring Break in Portugal, but it was quite a womp moment at first.

We got situated, changed, and headed out for exploring, only to run into Lane, Emily, Alessandra, and Riley on La Rambla; the rest of the day was spent wandering around the harbor, Arc du Triomph, and sitting in a park (with a gorgeous fountain!):

Afterwards, our groups split up so Emily and I could see the Picasso exhibit - we dropped by a scarf shop called Princess on the way, a very good store if I say so myself - and the exhibit was absolutely fantastic. It was mostly his early work, Blue Period, and an entire two/three-room spread of his take on Las Meninas. Emily and I broke off to go freshen up before the night started, and I (for once) made it back on time with no horrific turnarounds on the first try. We found a reasonable restaurant and met up with the huge Hostel One group to go to this big jazz club where some of the people got to just go up and play. Lucas, Mel and I were all tired, so we called it quits fairly early on and crashed asleep in minutes.

Wednesday, March 7th

We woke up relatively late - around 9am - and got ready for our upcoming Walking Tour of Guell.

Let's just say that I have a new favorite person. Well, kind of two, because our tour guide Katarine was fantastic and we spent nearly the whole walk geeking out about structural symbolism and numerology and all of these weird conceptual things that I'm into.

Sagrada Familia Nativity Façade

Crucifixion Façade

 After lunch, we paid the €11 to actually go inside the basilica. Needless to say, it was astonishing.

Inside the Sagrada

What we didn't realize is that the ticket also allows you into an underground museum, with hand-drawn sketches of the Familia, blueprints of its completion, a chart explaining the numerology board on the Crucifixion façade, and Mr. Guell's tomb.

Dinner that night was delicious KFC (last time I said KFC, I meant Burger King), followed by the El Gato Negro rock bar. Said rock bar had a very special drink, a drink that started my night in a very interesting way: The Queen B*tch, a shot of absinthe and tabasco sauce. Lucas suggested it, as it was on the cheaper-shots menu, and frankly I don't suggest it to most people. The bartender was quite amused by our reactions. Next up, Chupitos ("Shots Bar"), with the menu written out on the wall. Our method of picking a drink: close your eyes with your finger on the wall and walk until someone says "stop". I had a very strange selection of drinks: The Bin Laden, [some inappropriate phrase in Spanish], a Harry Potter, and a S'more. One of the house drinks was the Monica Lewinski - that one requires a full storytelling, so I'll save that tale for the curious and brave of heart.

By now, Mel was untired enough to want to go clubbing, but we struck out and wound up walking home for a good 1.5 hours. Creepy stuff happens in Barcelona after 3am.

Thursday, March 8

We woke up a bit better on time and ventured out to see the famous Park Guell. I say famous even though I'd never heard of him or his gardens before. Again, gorgeous:

After lunch, Mel and Lucas went off to the big soccer stadium and I got some time (read: shopping time) to myself. Two scarves (one at an unexpected 30% off) and a set of earrings later, I'm a happy woman.

We went walking - not sure why, anymore - and stumbled onto what we were pretty sure were the clubs the Sushi owner had tipped us off to earlier. That was horrible passive tense, sorry.

Two hours later, we're on the guest list for one of the clubs, my laundry's being washed/a thorn in everyone's sides. Thanks to quick thinking, I made a backup outfit in about three seconds. Thank you, multiple shades of black, how you doin?

We stopped at [The Fairy Forest] on our way out, then walked back to Opium for the night. We didn't even need a cover charge.

While we were at Opium, suddenly there was a guy with a kind of glass violin playing in the middle of the stage. So I dodged into the crowd to see him closer. I met a lot of people that night (some good, some bad), but even though we were out until 4:30am and the drinks are €10 a pop... dancedrunk!

Correct, we did not get home until 4:30. I fell asleep at around 5:00. Up at 7 to get the bus.

Ouch.