Daylight savings time is just an excuse to party an hour more

Happy Halloween everyone!

Yesterday I slept in until 12:30. Considering I didn’t go to bed until 3:30 I think that’s just fine. Heck, it was a Saturday on a holiday weekend. The day before I had successfully done one load of laundry of laundry (the little pictures/symbols on the washing machine are not really bilingual) so yesterday I needed to do the rest of my laundry. I don’t have a dryer here. In Murcia I could understand that…I didn’t necessary like it, but I understood it. It doesn’t rain a lot there and the temperature is pretty decent year-round. Here, it was raining yesterday. It started raining Friday night and has been drizzly and very Washington-like ever since. You can’t really put clothes outside on the line to dry if it’s raining. And later this winter when it starts to snow? I REALLY don’t think my clothes are going to dry then. So, this is what life looks like without a dryer…







I do love my towel warmer. I put my jeans on that, and it still took a long time, but I got them dry in one day instead of three. I have clothes on my tables, clothes on the chairs, clothes on the banister and clothes on desk…it’s beginning to sound like a Dr. Seuss story.

I also spent some time doing dishes and sweeping. Dust tends to gather really quickly here so I feel like I need to sweep every couple days.

I showered and got ready, and then got to talk with Brittany a little bit. We didn’t get to chat long because I ran out of money on my phone, but it was still good to talk to her. My plan was to go to Murcia tomorrow (Pepe is going to Murcia to look at a new car and said he could take me) and have coffee with Brittany.

After all that I headed out to do my errands. I went to Pepe’s house to drop off the phone he lent me and confirm tomorrow’s plan. Pepe wasn’t at the house but Rocio was. She said her dad was at Mezquita…of course he was…I think he is there, or in the area 90% of the time. Rocio was prepping her Halloween costume with a friend. Then I headed to Dia. I wasn’t sure what their hours were going to be, or which days they would be open because of the holiday weekend. I stocked up on food and jotted down their normal hours so I would know when to go in the future. I stopped in at Mezquita for coffee but it was really busy and I had my bags of groceries anyways. Pepe was there, and the group from the night before. Pepe said that they decided to go to Murcia next week instead. I was disappointed. I’m not sure when Pepe is actually going to go. He said he was going to go last week, and then moved it to this week, and now its next week. These trips to Murcia are way more complicated than they should be. It’s only a little over 2 hours away but there is only one or two buses that go that route each day, so if I go to Murcia I have to stay overnight at least one night. Brittany doesn’t have an apartment yet and I’m hesitant to shell out the money for a hostel until I start getting paid. Blah. I’m sure I’ll figure something out eventually.

I went back to the house, put my groceries away, send some e-mails, worked on my blog and dried off a little (stupid rain).

I was planning on going out again but wasn’t totally sure what time. This would be my first night here that I had plans to meet people and go out, instead of going by myself. QUITE exciting! The party at Mezquita was suppose to start at 1am and my group said they were going to go at 2am. They also said they were going to go out before the party, so I wasn’t sure what time they were going to call. I decided if they didn’t end up calling I would head to Menphys at 12:30 or 1 and see if they are there.

Later I received a text from Maribel saying they were planning on getting together at Menphys at 11:30. I took my time getting there, knowing it wasn’t likely they would actually be there right at 11:30. Menphys was so crowded. I definitely have to get used to that environment again because I was totally overwhelmed. It was really difficult to hear people, and basically impossible unless they were talking directly to me. I was underdressed too. I went in jeans and a fun shirt but all the girls were in heels and dresses. Part of me wanted to go home and change but I didn't. I should have saved my little black dress for this night instead of Friday. We had a couple drinks they headed to the discoteca at 2am. Cover was 6 euro, but it included a drink, so it wasn’t too bad. The bartender at the discoteca couldn’t understand me, and asked Almudena to clarify for him. It’s so frustrating…I know I’ve only been here a week and I’m not a native Spanish speaker, but I can hold such good conversations with some people and I’ve had many people tell me that I speak Spanish well. But then there are still people I can’t understand, who can’t understand me. Grrr.

It took me awhile to get adjusted to the discoteca. I was even more overwhelmed here. At times I just wanted to head out, or at least go outside for a minute, but I stuck it out. The concept of personal space is completely different here. Luckily the group I was with was really good to me. They kept checking in to make sure I was doing alright and having fun.

They had a special guest at the discoteca last night…Jenny from the show Mujeres y Hombres y Viceversa on Telecinco. I of course had no idea who she was prior to last night, but it was fun. We got a picture taken with her, which hopefully I’ll track down from Maribel at some point.

Gloria is freaking amazing. My night turned around and I had a lot of fun, mostly because of her. I really just can’t even express how grateful I am for her, for taking me under her wing, introducing me to people right and left, and breaking me out of my shell. She also took me up into the DJ area because her boyfriend is the DJ and he did a shout out to us over the PA system. We danced the night away, and I got to chat with quite a few people. I think a lot of the people were pleased to see that I wasn’t super uptight, because up until last night they had only seen me at Menphys trying to maintain conversation with them. I’m very sad that Gloria is only here for the weekend. I told her that I may try to take Laura and Chelsea to Granada, and if we do go, I’ll meet up with her. She is also going to be in town for Christmas break.

When I was in Murcia a lot of American music was played in the bars. I was pleasantly surprised that majority of the music played at the discoteca last night was Spanish. Gloria said yes, things are different in Andalucía.
Last night/this morning was daylight savings time here. I asked around 4am when the discoteca closes and Gloria said 6am because it’s a holiday weekend…and with daylight savings time…it feels like 7am. I think if I can survive last night, I’ll be set for the rest of my time here.













I went to bed at 7am (6am with the daylight savings time adjustment). Holy guacamole. I can’t believe that’s possible in a town this small. My ears were ringing so bad at the end of the night.

I woke up once at 11:30 and was shocked. I didn’t expect to be up until the day was mostly over. I closed my eyes again and didn’t wake up until 3. I tried to make potato wedges but burned them really badly. I think I have a high power oven. It said to cook them 15-20 minutes and by 15 minutes they were totally burnt. It’s a good thing apartments don’t have smoke detectors here because I definitely would have set them all off. And now I’m sitting in bed, enjoying patatas alioli and updating this blog. My only two goals today were to update the blog and finish my conversation cards for my adult English language class. Quite the life I have! And I don’t even have to work tomorrow!

Tonight is Halloween. I’m curious to see how many kids will actually end up going trick or treating since it is raining. I don’t have any candy to give out. Sad. I think there’s a store in town where you can buy it, but I don’t know where it is and it’s probably closed today. It’s definitely not like the bags of candy you buy in the states for Halloween. Who knows, if I end up going trick or treating with my students I won’t need candy anyways.

Random side note...I took this picture of the Siles directory sign. Notice that *the* gas station (gasolinera), *the* pharmacy (farmacia), *the* bus stop (parada bus) and public parking (parking público) are all destination points. Welcome to Siles!