Mierda, necesito un piso...

So, the apartment search continues...
I've seen every imaginable type of place to live this year, with all sorts of different people. Nothing, however, has really felt right until yesterday. Either really nice places where the people living there don't thrill me, or people that seem okay in a really really crappy place in a bad neighborhood, or in the worst cases, both. I came so close yesterday. I went to see a friend's apartment, which is amazing, as it's right out of a scene from L'Auberge espagnole. Not the most amazing apartment, but people from all over the world settling in to live together. And it's a very open space, a rare feature in the flats of Madrid. People from France, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, and the US all gathered under one roof with an amazing landlord. I looked at a place one floor up while two really cool girls from Portugal were doing the same. After talking to them, we all saw the possibility for the same type of atmosphere if we moved in and waited for a few more roommates. The problem is, they can't move until November and will be leaving in February. Definitely burst my bubble as things finally seemed to be going my way. It would have been so much fun. I'm still thinking very much of living there, but all of the rooms are still empty so I'm going to wait and see who might be moving in. I have another lead on a place that seems promising and am seeing that tonight. The main question I've been asking myself is whether I want to live with people from all over the world, who are all students and in the same boat, or do I want to live with Spaniards, who possibly work, and can't identify with this whole experience. On the one hand, it would be so cool to live with people from all over and go through this all together, but the Spanish doesn't flow quite as quickly and therefore I wouldn't pick it up nearly as fast. I just still don't know exactly what I want to get out of this year. Learning the language and making friends are both a top priority, but it's hard to find in an apartment right now.

I think this whole paragraph sounds completely illogical as I have been rambling on and on and not really reading or thinking about what I'm writing, so if that's the case, I apologize...

In other news, I finally had tapas yesterday, which is a little snack with a drink around 5-7 o'clock. Reider and I stopped at a little cafe on our way home from piso hunting and it was quite nice. A little toast covered with chicken and brie, and una cana de San Miguel. (Ah, what a name...) After returning to the dorm, I finally had some time to take a dip in the pool with some others. Very very nice. Do we really have to leave by the 19th...?

Last night, we went down to la puerta del sol, one of the most beautiful plazas in Madrid. We checked out a couple bars and took in the bustling nightlife. We went to a discoteca for a little while, which was pretty intense. Crazy techno music and lights with paid dancers up on these small stages... kind of weird... They really know how to party here in Madrid, no question about that. We took the night bus home since the metro closes at 1:30, and had to navigate on the fly as we didn't really know what bus to take and where it would take us. But we made it home safe and sound. Jennifer, Nate, Alyia and I went down to the courtyard at the down to chat when we got home and were invited to play cards by some really nice Spanish guys who I've already talked to a few times today. It was really similar to Eucre, and we even played their version of b.s. Anyways, I didn't get to bed until seven this morning... Typical weekend night for a madrileno... I don't know how they do it!

I had lunch (my breakfast) with three professors from southern Spain who are here for a conference and staying in the dorm. Really cool to talk to them and I even had to courage to ask some political/historical questions about post-Franco Spain to the two history professors.

Anyways, I'm off to find a Chino. (Yea... very politically incorrect way to say a cheap store run by Chinese immigrants, but Spaniards don't seem to think much of political correctness in general.) I need some shampoo and laundry detergent, and maybe some snacks. Hasta luego...