A Night Life

Disclaimer: This blog post not suitable for those under the age of 16. May contain some sexual references and no longer underage drinking references. If you wish to protect yourself and your children, avert your eyes and continue scrolling down until you pass this post, whenever you think that might be. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!



So the last few days have been pretty wild. I'm not one for much drinking and partying and going out and such, but Friday and Saturday nights were hella awesome nonetheless. So Friday night my roommate Chris and I decided to go out with the girls again. It will pretty much always be the girls since there are only 7 guys in our program, but it's a good ratio in my opinion. Anyway, so Friday night I call my friend Monika to find out what the plans are. They're at dinner someplace near el rio so Chris and I decide to go join them and then head to a bar (since we're legal here). Of course, we only got vague directions and figured we could find them anyway. Lo and behold, we were mistaken. As it turns out, Chris ended up forgetting his mobile and his map (which he considers his lifeline) so we had to turn back when we felt too lost to find where the girls were having dinner. It's just as well, because we needed that map eventually. So we rode around on the Sevici bicycles for a bit, trying to find our way, which we did after about an hour or so. So now it's 23:30 (11:30 pm for you Yankees), we're back at our apartment, the girls are at a bar, and we're still none the wiser as to where. So again, we jump on the Sevici bicis (the 'c' is pronounced like a 's' but with a lisp. It's the accent here. Try it.) We get down to the river, drop our bikes off, and cross the bridge. Here, we were directed to proceed down one block, look for a lot of construction, head that way, then turn left down an alleyway. What someone forgot to mention to us (I can't remember who actually gave us the directions...maybe Carly?) was that we were supposed to make an immediate right after the bridge onto calle Betis, which is sorta their party street I guess you could say. Anyway, we strode around Los Remedios (a neighborhood in Sevilla) for a bit, looking for some bar called BigBen that was supposedly near them, completely lost again for a solid 20/25 minutes. We finally get sick of it, call Monika again, and finally get some decent directions. After that, we found the bar without a problem. It was called Fundacion and it was actually a pretty cool place. Unfortunately, Chris and I arrived just a tad too late for the free sangria. Que lastima. Anyway, I buy the first round for me and Chris, we chat, meet some friends of the girls named Toba and David, two locals who have some serious connections. We ended up following them to this discoteca called Buddha. OFF THE HOOK! It was several levels, with a second floor terrace open to the Sevillan skyline and some pretty good beats playing inside. Plus, when we got there, we got a free round of shots. I think it was honey rum and it was delicious! So we danced and hung out there for a few hours. We met some other Americans with a different program based on some school out of the Midwest, and they turned out to be pretty cool. As it turns out, one of the girls was someone I'd met on my flight from Madrid to Sevilla, the flight that was so absurdly delayed. Funny little world. Walked home with two students from my program named Rahmin (a Peruvian with a Persian name. Huh?) and Carly and didn't end up getting in until about 4 in the AM. Overall, I gave the night a 9.

Saturday is another funny story. That morning, the whole program was supposed to meet at the hotel where we stayed the first night for a kind of tour around the city, more of a scavenger hunt kind of event. Well, Chris and I missed it. It seems that I remembered I had an alarm set, just that it was set to only go off on weekdays and not the weekends. Because honestly, who wants to wake up at 9am on a Saturday? Seriously, come on! We didn't actually wake up til 13:30 (subtract 12 to get 1:30) and we both felt a little guilty about that. O well, shit happens. Chris went out exploring a bit and I laid in bed reading for most of the day. At least that night went off without a hitch, and without getting lost. A good portion of the group met at Burger King (seriously, we have a Burger King just down the street, but I've been too afraid to try the food) before heading out. We decided to head to Calle Betis again, which turned out to be a very good idea. We were initially going to this place called Rio Grande, a fancy schmancy riverside club/bar/discoteca thing, but we got there around 12:10 and we were barred entry. No one gets in after 12 or without a flyer. Needless to say, we didn't have a single flyer, let alone 22. So we continued on, looking for someplace inviting. We actually found the bar BigBen (spelled BIGNEB...trying to be cool with the whole backwards letters and such), and saw they had some pretty sweet specials. So the group, all 22 of us, packed in and started drinking. I had some beers and my very first lemon drop (which actually wasn't too bad...maybe I've misjudged tequila). So I had a pretty fair buzz going when we decided to ditch BigNeb and continue on. We walked a little further down the street and went into this discoteca, I never caught the name, and I seriously felt like I'd been teleported to a slightly classier but equally sketchy version of Players in Chapel Hill. At first, I wasn't feeling too comfortable, but when some people started dancing, I really stopped caring. There are some pictures of me on Facebook looking awfully retarded but alas, that's what happens when I dance. So sue me. I danced for a good while again, tried to get some wallflowers in our group to dance too (they wouldn't, though myself and several of the girls tried) and overall had a good time. We abandoned that place and went back to BigNeb's for a last round before calling it a night and then I walked a big group of girls home. I try to be a gentleman. I was informed it earned me brownie points, but really, when can I cash those in? I'm pretty sure I have a pretty fair amount by now, all things considered. I'd like to collect on my prizes, whatever they might be. Brownies are acceptable.

But yes, the night life here is pretty crazy. We went home a little after 3 and everything was still going strong. Apparently Chris is used to this stuff, but I think 3 nights of going out will be the death of me before September is over. I'll have to learn to pace myself. I can do that.

Oh, just so no one gets the wrong idea, I have yet to actually get drunk while I'm here. Buzzed yet, but not drunk. So yea, I'm not going crazy being able to legally drink, no worries.