Botellónes Galore

Hola desde España! It's been a long weekend but a good one, too. I've now participated in an essential part of the youth culture here in Spain: Botellónes.

A botellón is basically a street party. Instead of going to a bar to drink, the young people here go to the super market and buy their alcohol for cheaper. Then go drink it in the streets before going to the bars. That way, they can avoid spending, say, €2 for a beer and instead buy an entire bottle of wine for €1. Yes, one euro gets you a whole bottle of wine. And after drinking a bottle of wine, there's no reason you would need to buy any more alcohol!

I won't say how much I drank this weekend, but I will say that for two nights of entertainment I spent €2. :) We had our botellón on la playa (the beach, if you didn't already know). Just standing around in the sand, listening and watching the waves come in from the Mediterranean. Wow, it's weird to type that. Mediterranean. After that, we went to the dance club and danced and danced. I've found it's a lot easier for me to dance when you can't move anywhere, because at that point you have no other option but to dance. It's a wave of people, and there's no point in going against the current. Very fun.

The second night, we went back to the beach but this time settled into the pirate ship playground. It was awesome. Little kids climb on it during the day, 20-somethings drink on it at night. Good stuff.

Also, when I leave to go home at 3am, I'm usually the first one from my group to call it a night, and definitely the first one in the barrio. Shoot, the Spaniards don't even get there until 2.

I finally played some soccer, and it was great. All Americans, but still. Shorts, sun, no shoes, beach. Truly a great time.

Went up to the castle today. Haven't figured out the importance of it except for the fact that it's about 250 years older than the United States. Pictures are to the left.

I'm having a great time, but it's so weird to hear about the world going on without me back at home. I guess I'm a little self-centered. Hope everyone is well. It's back to 6:30 wake up calls for me.