The Real Spanish Experience

CARNAVAL is one of the biggest celebrations throughout the Hispanic world. It is basically a week long Halloween/Mardi Gras before Lent where everyone dresses up, goes to the parades, dances and has an excuse to actually be crazy. As soon as the bus dropped us off getting back from San Sebastian, Ashley, Jenny and I grabbed our masks from Thursday night and headed to Madrid to catch the last parts of the parade and Carnaval events. There were tons of people in the streets flocking around the parade. There were tons of costumes – creative costumes and no one did it half-way. We saw Dalmatians, Fanta girls, boxes of popcorn – the list could go on forever. We got there very close to the end and decided to go out to eat. We found this place literally called Foster’s American Food or something like that. There were a bunch of kids our age there and it was fantastic to have semi-American food like nachos and quesadillas.
Ashley and I stayed later and met up with other students we knew studying in Madrid. They introduced us to several Spanish guys and we hung out in one of the local parks for a while getting to know each other, practicing our Spanish and celebrating one of the guys’ birthdays. After, we all headed to a SALSA CLUB. I can easily say that if I went home tomorrow, I would be content with my study abroad experience. The club was sooo Spanish. I did not recognize a single song and got to salsa!! Although we stayed out way too late once again and I could barely keep my eyes open for church, it was one of the best nights in Madrid by far.