spanish guitar

Again, I'm so sorry that these posts will be kind of out order. To be a little clearer, all of these kinds of posts of me being informational and describing my life are all in order. Only the ones that are trips and "vacations" are going to be kind of crazy. I want to describe what happened besides just post pictures so that you can relive the adventure with me, and that takes a while to type out. Before each of the posts, I'm going to put the dates in that handy-dandy goldenrod-type font so that you can make sense of my blogs. Hopefully it's not too confusing.

Back to my actual post. Yesterday was a good day. Why? Because I spent most of it alone. I know that sounds kind of depressing, but I'm the kind of person that loves people but needs some me-time. If I don't get at least some time alone to process and think, I start going crazy. The day before, the 26th, we had just gotten back from Tangier (which I will describe later, I promise) so I was pretty tired. I went to sleep at about 11am and woke up at 8am the next day. The problem with that? No one else is awake. I thought I'd be kind of bored, but it turned out to be a great morning. I got ready listening to music and ate breakfast while watching TV.

It was my last Sunday in Madrid - the start of my last week in Madrid. I decided to go to the Rastro one more time, which is the giant flea market that spans several streets. If you feel like looking at a map, it's between the Metro stops Tirso de Molina, Puerta de Toledo and Embajadores. The cool thing is that it's only like two or three streets over from my house, so I can walk there in 5 minutes. The weather outside was PERFECT. I put on a sundress and sunglasses and strolled to the Rastro listening to Christian music and Spanish guitar. When I first arrived in Spain, I would have been terrified to go into the Rastro alone. Now, I couldn't stop smiling. I had a couple more souvenirs to pick up, so I plunged myself into the crowd. It was so cool though because I blended in. It's super obvious who's a tourist and who's not. They usually have hats, fanny packs, fancy cameras hanging around their neck, and they're usually on the plumper side - hey, it's true. Because it was a perfect day, there were a lot of tourists there - most of them being from England. It was really cool though because when I spoke Spanish to the vendors, I wasn't nervous for once. I didn't really have to think before I spoke - it just came out. If they spoke to me in English, I answered in Spanish. The last thing I was is for them to think I was a tourist, especially an American tourist.

I went to an Indian stand with beautiful scarves - one I had seen before. I bought a couple for some friends back home and got my change. The last time I was here, they tried cheating me out of a euro or 2, but I caught them and they gave me the extra euros without asking me why. This time, they had tried to cheat a woman out of a 5 euro bill, but she caught them. When she told them, the guy said, "Oh, sorry. The other guy gave you the wrong change, he's so silly." They're smart though. Many tourists are careless and don't stop to count their change. Sometimes, it's good not to trust people to give you the right change back.

I wandered all over the Rastro because I knew it would be my last time there. I kept my hand on my bag to ward off any pick-pocketers and took the streets with less people. I mostly did that just to observe and remember...the smell of the city, the sounds of the vendors, the buildings of Madrid, the constant stream of beautiful Spanish. I'm going to miss it. I had such a great time just wandering around the Rastro because I had some time to myself, I didn't have any problems with communication and understood everything going on around me, I knew my way around the buildings, and I knew where all the most inexpensive tents were. I'm going to miss Madrid.

The rest of the day was relaxing but kind of boring because I mostly just stayed in my room, roughly packing my suitcase, deciding what to throw away, and watching TV. I did finish typing out my Italy blog, so yay!

The most exciting part about the day happened at night though. My friend Ariel found about about this inexpensive Spanish guitar concert that was happening that night. He even got in contact with the artist. They were called the Anthony Ocaño Trio. We headed over to Puerta de Toledo and met Uyen (pronounced like When), a girl that goes to UC Davis who goes to Complutense I think. Anyway, we had met her through Alim. It was really small and was more like a gathering than a concert. We bought the tickets and went into a small room with about 10-15 people total. Soon, the trio came out and started playing.

They were AMAZING. The second that Anthony (the guitarist) started playing, I couldn't stop smiling. It was so beautiful, and nothing compares to live music. He was the "leader," and the other two women played the violin and cello. They were so incredible. He played a normal acoustic guitar, as well as a 10-string guitar, which was cool to see. They played for about an hour an a half, and they even played an encore when we kept on clapping. They played 2 songs again that were my favorite. Out of everyone in the room, we were the youngest - we just have good taste I guess. There was just one other little kid, and he fell asleep. At one point, he snorted really loudly, and everyone was laughing as the mom was trying to wake him up.

This was probably one of my favorite moments from my time in Madrid. It was perfect. It was a small little gathering, we were listening to beautiful music from passionate musicians who didn't need sheet music and played from their soul. Afterward, we met the main musician guy who had changed into a Ramones T-shirt. Uyen doesn't speak Spanish very well, but she wanted to interview him so she asked if he spoke English. He's from the Dominican Republic, but he went to college in New York. He answered, "Yes I do," and we continued talking to him. His English is pretty much perfect, and his accent is pretty good too. He even asked the 3 of us if we wanted to meet with him again to talk and stuff. I'd love to talk to him and ask how he got started as a musician. After that it was still pretty early so Ariel, Uyen, and I got some sangria and tacos al pastor (I told you, we miss Mexican food SO MUCH, especially since we're from around LA). It was a fun night :)