A very long day

Yesterday was a day that lasted about 22 hours -- beginning at 7:30 AM as I woke up to get ready for our day trip to the towns of Avila and Segovia, and ending at about 5:30 AM as I finally rolled into bed after a long night of bar-hopping, dancing, and intesive Spanish-speaking.

Avila and Segovia are nice towns, both very small. Each has its own prominent monument for which it is widely known -- Avila's is the medieval wall that has surrounded the town since I think the 11th century, protecting it from Moorish invaders. Segovia's is even more ancient and impressive than that -- gigantic Roman aqueducts, presumably dating from about the 2nd or third century.

Part of the Avila wall:


The aqueducts at Segovia:


Me and Britt marvelling at the aqueducts at Segovia:


We got back from that trip at about 7, having spent 2-3 hours in each city and a good bit of time on the bus in between. After I got home, I took a one-hour nap (I only got about 5 hours of sleep the night before), then got up and had dinner, and afterwards went with my host brother Dario to meet his friend Bruno and Britt to go bar-hopping. At the first bar we went to, which was way out of the way, I ran into one of my supervisors at MAP magazine, which was an incredible coincidences (of which I've already had numerous since I've been here). Then we went to another bar, then took a long train ride to another, where we stayed for a few hours. Bruno and Dario both have good taste in music, as well as an insider's knowledge of the best venues around Madrid. We stayed at the last one till it closed at 4, listening to 70's and 80's rock, asking the DJ to play some good songs, etc. The best part was just spending the whole night speaking Spanish with people who don't really speak English (although Bruno speaks a bit). It's the kind of practice that I really need and I'm glad I'm getting. Britt has actually had sort of a thing for Bruno since a couple weeks ago when we first went out, and they've been sort of courting each other via mix CD's ever since.

After the club closed we took a night bus to Plaza de Cibeles, where the whole network of night buses connects, and I took another one that took me right to the casa. An eventful and really fun day.

In other news, I quit my second internship, with TBS The Broadsheet, after not having gone in for a couple weeks and finding not having two jobs very relieving.

Now it's time to study.