Madrid de Nuevo

I´m BAAAACK!! Yes. I. Love. Madrid. Yes. Yes.

So I went to Murcia with the fam and had a time. It was basically going to the beach, going to cafes and going to restaurants. Really great. Oh, and watching Urgencias, or ER with them. I loved it. The whole time I was there I couldn´t help thinking that I´m in Spain in the summer home, bathing in the Mediterranean. Who am I? Really. Whose life is this? I can´t even imagine what would go through my head in Mallorca. Probably something along the lines of "I hate this family. Why am I here? I want to go home and spend my last summer with friends, not these rich bitches."

Which brings me to another point. My real Spanish family probably isn´t as rich as I thought. They are by no means poor. They are totally upper middle class, but they aren´t shockingly rich. Their apartment was probably grandfathered in, so it´s really cheap, and they have all this great property and a lot of money, but I don´t think they´re rich rich. Which probably explains why they were nice. Sorry, I can´t escape my working class prole childhood prejudices.

From Murcia I was supposed to meet the Drake in Granada, but the town in which my family lives is a bitch to get to and from, and I don´t think I could get to Granada directly, and when my family offered to take me back to Madrid with them I jumped so here I am with the Drake, showing her around. Tomorrow we go to Granada before going back to Valencia and I´m home in like a week and a half.

THE ANECDOTE PART
Good story. When the Drake and I arrived in Madrid, we went to this pretty nice hostal (sic) there. We asked for a double and they gave us a room with two twins separated by a nightstand with a shower in the room, just hanging out there in the corner. The owner of this hostal proceeds to show us the room, explain its workings, and offers to push the two beds together if we would like. I said no that wouldn´t be necessary, but she was insistent. "Really, it´s not a problem, it´s fine, we just move the nightstand, it´s really more comfortable that way...you know, `nicer.´" All this is translated from Spanish. Of course I blushed and said no thanks, but she wouldn´t let it go, probably thinking I was uncomfortable based on my blushing which was enhanced by a slight sunburn. Then she´d explain how the metal exterior shade worked, offer to put the beds together, explain the air conditioner, offer to put the beds together, etc. The Drake and I were dying laughing after she left the room. Finally she relented, but offered the parting advice "Well if you want to push the beds together later, that´s fine, it´s really quite easy." My god woman, what do you take us for, ashamed nymphos?

This is especially funny since under Franco a man and woman couldn´t even share the same hotel room unless they brought along their family book to prove they were married. So that´s how different Spain is now.

So I guess that´s enough update for now. Coming to the Bridge soon and I´m pretty excited. The next week in Valencia I´ll probably spend at the beach. The Drake and I are thinking about coming back to Madrid for the HUGE gay pride festival next week. It´s apparently the biggest party of the year in Madrid with more 1.3 million people in the march last year, and this year will probably be bigger this year to combat last weeks "traditional marriage" "profamily" rally. In that news, the Senate vetoed gay marriage here, so now it goes back to the Congress where they´ll probably send it back to the Senate slightly modified before it goes into law. A parting note on Spanish politics. Protests are huge here, but they´re not called protests. They´re more manifestations which is good because it shows that you´re not necessarily anti anything, you´re just pro something. And the big traditional marriage manifestation, although it was organized with a little homophobia lurking around the edges went off without a homophobic sign or chant or anything. It was all very civil. Could you IMAGINE that happening in the States...NEVER!