First Night Out, finally

This post might be a long one (i'm starting with a maybe kinda funny story), so sorry in advance.

The other night, I finally got the chance to go out cause I was feeling much better. As part of orientation, we had to go to this "fair" where there were a bunch of travel agencies and club promoters trying to advertise stuff to us. I walked around for a little bit, pretending to be interested in what they were saying, until I found myself outside talking about what everyone's plans were for the night. Me and my friend Josh are told we might not be able to get in some places wearing the shoes we had on (I wasn't aware we were going straight out from the place), so with a little over an hour til the end of the "fair", we headed to our homestays to change.

And yes, we were completely sober...

We head to Joshs' place first, and he tries to open the gate to his apartment, but for whatever reason, neither of his keys would work, and he didn't know what apartment number he was so he couldn't "buzz" up. So, we kept on trying to open the gate with the same keys over and over for a good 5 or 10 minutes, knowing that if we stopped trying the keys we would have no other ideas, so we kept trying. Finally, someone else who lives in the apartment came home and let Josh in, so I wait in the lobby as he goes up to change. After a while, he comes down with his fancy shoes on, but with a smirk on his face, and explains to me that when he went upstairs, he used his key and rang the doorbell for around 5 minutes before he realized that he was at the wrong door inside the apartment building. I laugh and roll my eyes, almost embarrassed for him.

However, we then go to find my house, which I know is close by...but not 100% sure where. Nevertheless, I confidently lead him to where I hoped my apartment was at. Needless to say, after a couple minutes of walking, I turn to him and say "alright, I don't know where I'm at." I find an apartment complex parking lot that I claim looked familiar, so we go to check it out, but I realize that it's not the right one. So we keep on walking, and I find another parking lot that looked familiar (but looked completely different than the first one we saw), so we go there and luckily I found my homestay. So, by now I think that the hard part is over.

I open the first door to the apartment complex with no problem (Something Josh couldn't do, I might add) and head to the elevator that I need to take up to the 5th floor, kinda in a hurry cause I knew we took a while at Josh's. I press the only button that is next to the door, and nothing happens. I press it again, and still nothing. I try to open the door, and the button lights up, but the door is locked. I try opening the door and pressing at the same time, and still nothing. I call Josh over, he tries and gets the same results. So, I try to use the stairs, but it's dark out and the light switch I saw only lit up to the 2nd floor (which I saw as labeled B, so I had no idea how many flights it was to get from "B" to "5") and after the first set of stairs, it was pitch black, and I couldn't find any other light switches. I walk down, try the elevator again and fail, try to walk up again (naturally thinking that maybe I can magically see in the dark this time) and fail, walk down, then Josh and I both walk up with no luck, then walk down, and then go back to the elevator where we notice that the door was unlocked and I was able to enter. We look at eachother, kind confused, but don't say a word and I go up to change.

Before I go on, let me fast forward to later in the night when I get home from going out... I again attempt to open the elevator, thinking maybe you just have to wait for a while for it to actually come down. But after waiting for "a while," I press the button a bunch of times and then hold it down in frustration...and of course I then hear the elevator start to move and come down to my floor... Yes that's right, all I needed to do was hold the button down.


Anyway, since that action-packed story took a while and probably wasn't even that great of a story (i thought you'd might enjoy my stupidity...maybe at least you grinned?), I will try to sum up the rest of my night relatively quickly, so stick with me if you're still interested!

Josh and I met back up with our orientation group (a group of 11 of us that we were assigned from our program) who was patiently waiting for us where we left them yet unimpressed with our time-consuming wardrobe changes, and we went out with our guide, Maria, for tapas (traditional Spanish appetizer-style food), which was very good, as has been everything we've eaten so far. We then headed to Plaza Del Salvador to buy a few drinks and meet up with other people in our program. The plaza was pretty crowded and was basically a little bar where you buy a drink, and then hang around outside in this open plaza. It was pretty cool to be outside and be able to drink and walk around the plaza, but at the same time, the Plaza was right in front of a big church, so it was like God was staring at us while we were drinking, which seemed a little frightening and judgmental, but after a few drinks we were able to get over that feeling (just kidding! But it really was in front of a church).

Eventually, the bar closed, and we head to another bar, which was a more traditional bar that was inside, and is actually one of my favorites so far. It's pretty easy to get drinks there, there have been a good amount of people there but the atmosphere is still relatively chill and relaxed, and the bartenders are two young and attractive girls who are really nice, and by really nice I mean they smile/laugh at Americans like me when they can't understand me over the loud music. We spent most of the night there just hanging out, and were then gonna go home, but some of the guides that came out with us got us into a discoteca (more of a club with more music and dancing and is open later) across the street for free. It was a lot of fun, but I felt like I was on Spring Break again in Acapulco because it was a nice/fancy club, pretty touristy, and they played pretty much all American dance music and it was really hot inside. Like I said, I had a good time and I'd go there again, but for me at least, it wouldn't be an "every night" thing, especially if I would have to pay cover.

Alright, that was the last place on my first night out and then I went home! I assume you guys don't want/don't have the time to read long posts, so I promise I'll try to keep them shorter in the future. Either that, or every long post I will just keep apologizing and falsely promise that I'll be more brief the next time....we'll see.

Much love from Spain,

Ross