Spain Wins World Cup

Hola!

Flying home solo from París, I realized that I am capable of being more independent than I initially thought. The flight was smooth and I could not have been happier to be around Spanish speakers again. Not knowing the French language made me feel more like a tourist, and I prefer to experience a more authentic view of places I visit. I must be spoiled in Spain with my opportunity to live with a host family and know the language.

Once arriving in Madrid, I went straight to Recoletas – the main plaza in Madrid where the World Cup game was taking place. I met up with a few friends and we made our way through the crowd of almost 1 million people, I assume. With my backpack on my stomach, I am sure I bothered many people as I made my way around the streets. I felt like I was at a concert on steroids. As we left the train station to enter the streets, there was a fire hose shot into the air with people dancing and singing Spanish songs. We quickly joined the action and cooled off before the intense crowd walking began. After about 20 minutes of pushing through stationary people with my grandísimo backpack, we found a spot further back with less people to watch the first half.

Not being able to see the game clearly, we found a dance club turned into the hot spot to watch the game. It cost 8 euro to enter and included a drink. At this point air condition, sitting down, and a glass of water satisfied all of my senses. My throat had been hurting me all weekend and the screaming of the night has only elongated my recovery. After the first goal of the game by Spain in the second overtime, the town was ALIVE. We quickly ran to the streets to experience the celebration. People were climbing light posts, singing “A por ellos, ole”, and setting off something resembling a firework that you throw on the ground.

At 11:00pm, we decided to head to the metro station to go ahead and make it home before the last train left at midnight. This usually takes about 10 to 15 minutes to get the last train… After squeezing past at least 200 people to buy a metro pass, run through the station and get on the first of two trains to get home, we found that we missed the last train by only two minutes in the large metro station of Atocha.

We accepted the fact that we would pay about $30 each for a taxi and walked outside expecting to find one quickly. Needless to say, we parked outside of Atocha for two hours waiting for an open taxi to find its way to us. The city was paralyzed with celebration with teenagers dancing in the streets, car horns, and singing from every direction.

When I finally made it home, I just wanted to eat dinner and go to bed. Our father was waiting up for me as I walked in the door at 2:00am to ensure that I had even returned from Paris safely. He made me dinner and then I crashed. Despite the transportation challenges, experiencing Madrid when Spain won their first World Cup is a feeling I will never forget. I think I choose a good year to study here!

On Monday, the players returned to Madrid and there was a huge parade in the streets. 2 million people flooded the city to see the players holding the cup riding on top of a bus. The royal family attended as well. A few people from our group made it into the city but Mel and I had been fighting a cold all day and didn’t know if our bodies could handle waiting for 3.5 hours in 90 degree weather. Nonetheless, we watched the parade on TV and felt such loyalty and patriotism to a country where we have resided for only two months.

FAMILY

We will miss our Spanish family when we leave. We have only one and half more weeks in Europe until we return to the states for a whole new type of football season. (I think we are good luck charms as both UA and Spain won championships this year… we ought to be paid for this!) The general consensus is that we miss our families back home and will be ready to see them again, but at the same time we love Spain and are enjoying every last day here. What an experience.

After having learned that Spanish stereotypes are not always correct, we asked our family their opinions of Americans. The image in their head is a large person with a big-mac crammed into their mouths accompanied by a tall cup of coffee. Oh man, maybe this is why they feed us so much food… Melanie and I have already decided to start cutting back on our portions so we don’t return to the states surprising our family too much with our increased portions and abnormal hours of hunger.

(next posts gives details of my Paris trip with Brice!)