Halloween

el 1 del noviembre de 2008

So last night was amazing. After class got out at 2, we had lunch and then all rendezvoused at the bazaar-type store up the street to throw together some costumes. My original costume idea was to be Shaggy from Scooby Doo, but I was pretty sure nobody was going to get it. Also I would need a stuffed Scooby Doo for sure, and had no clue where to obtain one. In any case, I was going to roll with it. Well we get to the bazaar and start walking around looking for ideas. Cory and I pass through one of the clothing aisles and we happen to spot some flamenco dancer costumes. Female ones. For young girls. Well, luckily (luckily? interesting concept here...) they had one that was meant for an 18 year old girl. Well, the limits of this costume were about to be tested by a 21 year old boy. I was a little unsure about the costume at first, but quickly, with some help from the company present at the time, calmed my fears and started getting really into the costume. After I found the wig, beads, flowers, and Cory found me stockings I was ready to go. Cory found his costume, which was really impresive on his part in terms of imagination. He went as a sandwich sign, and had people sign his board all night. It was amazing in a lot of ways, but mostly when people we didn't know just walked up and signed the board.

So we headed home to prepare/create our costumes. My dress had to be cut in one or two spots at the waist in order to fit over my shoulders. My final costume involved an amply stuffed bra, wig, flowers, dress, stockings... and flip flops. They were the only black shoes I had haha. Cory put together his costume like a pro, and after a quick dinner everyone met at our place to head out.

The plan for the night was to meet all the Erasmus kids at the Celtic Tavern for a couple drinks before heading to Tempo for the real party. Well, we were the first ones to the party at the Celtic Tavern. By first, I mean the first ones from the Erasmus group. Which meant that the bar was full... just not full of anyone we knew, or anyone in costume, and I was in a dress. I felt exposed. After a couple beers and a shot of Jameson we felt much better. After a little while more Erasmus people showed up, some in costume, and some of the locals began showing up in costumes as well. We hung out there for a while and eventually headed to Tempo around 1ish (I think).

Side note: Celtic Tavern is my new favorite bar in Santander. This place is so amazing. The decorations last night were off the hook, there are always specials for the parties with gifts and such, and the people there are really cool. This is also the place that I met that professional photographer who I was chatting with. He's the guy who met and did the photo shoot for Bruce Springstein when he came to Spain.

Moving on, Tempo is where things got interesting. I remember dancing with lots and lots of random people. I remember lots of people touching my breasts. Sadly, I remember one dude slapping my ass. Yea. We were all pretty shitfaced. I also remember taking a million pictures with people I don't even know (and some with people I did know). My costume went over pretty well, haha. Cory's also went over really well, and we both won prizes in the costume competition. Sweet! Free t-shirt and drink, although at that point I really didn't need another drink. Oh well. But yea, it was really amazing. Cory and I both noted, though, how funny it is that we know for a fact that there will be hundreds** of photos of us on Facebook that we will never be able to see because we have no clue who these people are. May or may not be for the best, considering how I was dressed.

After we left Tempo, rather, after Tempo closed we all headed to the rain filled street to find some Doner Kebab before heading home. It was ridiculous. The people at that poor restaurant must either really love of absolutely hate 5:30am. So the night ended there. Cory and I made it home fine, Amanda called me about 5 minutes after I had drunkenly stumbled into bed to have me come buzz her in (forgot her keys) and then I passed the hell out.

What a night though. I remember George saying, at several points in the night, "I love our friends!" etc etc about our costumes and how crazy we all were. It made me feel really bittersweet about the whole thing. I wish my first inclination had been to think "Yea! We really are awesome, and I'm so lucky to have found this amazing people to spend my time abroad with" but that was my second though. My first thought was "Wow. I have to leave these people in a couple months." It was strange. I didn't jump into any depressing mood swings or anything, but I just thought "Wow. If I had these friends back in RI they'd be just like my friends there now: we would all be inseparable and do all we could to see each other often etc." But it's different here. It's different being an American. We would have to cross an ocean. The Europeans can hop on Ryan Air for 40euro round trip and spend a whole weekend with each other. Now, I'm not saying that this is going to stop me, or, for sure, that I won't stay in contact with these people. All I'm saying is that it is just really weird making such strong friendships with people who essentially live on the other side of the world. This does two things to me: the first I already mentioned, in that it makes me sad to think about leaving. But the second is that it makes me ever SO excited to stay in contact with these people when I leave. And even MORE excited, a year or two or three down the road, when we visit each other in our home countries. Or maybe even a rendezvous in Santander. Who knows!

Now I said this when I was in Costa Rica, that I couldn't wait to stay in touch and talk and visit etc. And to be honest, I've lost contact with everyone. Only about a week or two ago did I get another facebook message from my group of friends from the trip about what we were up to and how we were doing. Spain, I feel, is very much different. One year is so much more time to make a deeper friendship than I had in the 5 weeks I was in Costa Rica. Which makes me even more excited about the friendships already developing.

A couple quick notes:
-Purchased my plane tickets for Christmas in London and New Years in Prague. Wicked excited!!
-Purchased plane tickets for Jenn's birthday in Amsterdam in November. That weekend will be nuts.
-Remembered that I have two papers and an exam the week after that weekend in Amsterdam.
-...
-doh!

That's all for now. As always, I miss you all and hope that you are all doing well back home. I hope the leaves have turned the beautiful colors that I know they can.

Happy November.

Tan pronto,
Andrew
Santander, ESP


**Note: "hundreds" of pictures is a gross exaggeration. Well, maybe not. It is Facebook.