The Adventures of Victoria and Mia

So Mia from school is with me in Granada...we make the total black population of Granada add up to 4.0008 and we know it and are reminded...ma o meno everyday...

Anyhoo we often begin the week with a bright idea or quest to find something...

thus far we have quest-ed pizza hut, a (hood) chinese restaurant, a chicken place, a hair place, and the grandest quest of them all flamenco....

the idea to find a flamenco place was an idea contrived...long ago...in 2005 when I was in Salamanca...after I saw the amazing-ness that is flamenco baile y musica

 i knew that flamenco thrived in granada...and its on of the many reasons i chose this city.

I have been here for ohhhh 2 months n my experiences with flamenco have been....em *cough*cough* limited.

After about a month the yearning came and i decided that this should be our next quest (at this point we had only conquered finding a [hood] chinese spot) 

It was semi-unintential because it followed another brilliant idea of mine 2 weeks into the game...of NEEDING to find reggae music.

We went to a place called Upsetter, because I saw a flyer with the magical combination of letters that spell R-E-G-G-A-E and we got there a little early...apparently there was a flamenco show right before...in this little cave sooo my eyes lit up as my heart did a little flutter and i took a trip down memory lane to my first concierto de flamenco...

About two weeks later we decided to go back to upsetter after it was recommended by a friend from granada...the show started at 10 but we were on b.p. time which coincidentally coincides with spanish time soooo we were a little late...

but despite my amazing navigational skills we got lost for ohhh an hour...

by the time we realized how late we were...we had arrived and the guy at the door basically stopped us...and told us that it was 11:30 and there was only 30 min left so we should try coming another day.

The next weekend we attempted to go to la chumbera...the caves in sacromente...of course we were just a tad bit late...but after about 35 min of waiting at the bus stop...we  were forced to give up.

That tuesday (this was during my week of unfortunate events) made it to a flamenco show when i was on my way back to the house...sooo...i decided i had to make this happen

That saturday we tried again to go to la chumbera...but the bus didn't come (even though we weren't really late this time)...soo some guy comes up asks us if we want to see flamenco in  a cave and gave us a flyer...

  A rational person might think this was just a TAD bit sketch...but we were with a large group, it was free, and had nothing better to do. Plus...this could be the authentic thing...right??

Sooo...we go to this really nice cave with a pretty good ambience after taking the advice of this semi sketch guy who was married with child but seemed to have a thing for my roommate Andrea, who he kept pointing at and saying mi mujer...which means...wife...

*side note* this guy was from Andrea's hometown and seemed nice enough but as the night progressed we realized that he might be kind of sketchy since he was well into his 40s but was totally OK with hanging out with like nine 20 year olds...

Anyhoo the people who worked there were really nice and all seemed well...they started the show with a man who read two of Federico Garcia Lorca's poems followed by two of his own...*snaps* there were tight.

Then came the group...there were three men who were well past their primes....i'd say over 60...ok maybe late 50s...who were in this group. WARNING SIGN number 96

One man who played the guitar, wore a red button down shirt but NO not buttoned all the way...he left little to the imagination and just enough buttons unbuttoned for us to see a gooooood 4 inches worth of chest hair. The other two weren't as bad but definitely used the "good" gel for the performance. They sang about 3 songs, including one in english...which....they should have just left in spanish...

Andrea described it as a boy band still holding on...i'd say like New Edition in 10 years or like NSYNC in 24 years...STILL wearing similar outfits from their hey-day and hair styles from that time.

At one point in the performance the guy dedicated the song to me and andrea...after their set the creep-ily approached us...the one in the red took Andrea's hand and started to play the air guitar with her palm...another guy came to me making small talk and telling me I should practice my verbs with him...

After about 10 minutes of avoiding actual conversations with these creepers they began to get ready for the dancer. 

FINALLY! We were going to see some flamenco! I was TOO excited...

Until I saw the dancer...

He was an older man (the same age as the too smooth crew) and he had on a white sweater...he quickly told us he was going to make himself beautiful...WARNING SIGN NUMBER 500...

He came out 3 minutes later in stretchy black pants, make up done, and a sequined gold shirt that we later learned...had no real buttons.

He made his way to the front of the cave and went immediately for the mike.

Hmmmmm...i thought....interesting that he's going to use the mic as a dancer....

He belted out a few tunes and then told us he was going to start to dance. He walked ultra uber slowly to the middle of the floor...lifted his hands and his head...

and started to sing again....

then he started moving his feet....then slow walked...the whole time, the mic was draped around his neck and whenever he felt it moving, he'd grab it and pretend that it was part of the choreography to play with the cord...

After a few more walking periods he started stomping realllllllllyyyyyyy hard and snapping off beat...he would stop every so often like *isn't this amazing?? clap clap!* and the silly ones applauded....and then we would continue...

It took me about 10 min for me to realize that the man was making his booty clap. And for 2.5 hours he continued...making his booty clap...only stopping for applause or to "sing" a dramatic line of a song.

I couldn't help but see him as Tom Jones in heels and stomping his feet...

It was a HOT MESS

So after his first set, our entire group excused ourselves and left with prisa. 

It certainly was memorable night...

This past wednesday Mia and I tried to find a free flamenco place but that was recommended by a friend of ours...and of course...we couldn't find it...so we'll see what next week brings...

A series of Unfortunate events

hello blog world...

My life a couple of weeks ago...was just...not going well...to say the least...

It started when I tried to add money to my phone that i'm ALWAYS recharging...but cannot yet bring myself to add more than €5.00 at a time. I was trying a new thing...where I was going to ask the guy to charge it to my debit card instead of being charged the international withdrawl-ing fee. Unfortunately, my card was denied...i skipped the i'm going to be embarrased part and decided to try and take out money later...

Of course I was unable to. Sooo I skyped bank of america who told me that because I was in Spain, and they didn't know, they cancelled my card and sent a new one to my New Orleans address.

*NOTE: 1) my mailing address to n.o. expired in december which they have noted
2) they did not bother to call me to (a) ask if i'd lost my card (b) notify me that they cancelled my card
3) at this point i'd been in Spain for OVER A MONTH AND A HALF and using my pin as well as charging things...but that didn't appear suspicious to them

So I demanded to speak to a couple of supervisors and got them to mail me a new card to my address here in spain (that was like 2 weeks ago...still haven't got it...hmmm theyll be recieving a call tonight)

I just kind of let all of that go and went on a search for flamenco...which i Failed at...but i'll expand on that in the next post.

So the entire weekend the shower was clogged with my roommates hair and the water was freezing
*NOTE: i'm overcoming it now...but i used to have a phobia/extreme distate for WHITE GIRL HAIR...

Anyhoo, on Monday I go to school and try to download Vicky Christina Barcelona to watch and of course it takes like 6 hours but just as its about to finish I leave and go to dinner...

the Next day...I open up my computer and realize that it won't turn on.

I refuse to believe its broken and instead google on the public PCs variations of "my macbook won't turn on, what should I do" I try EVERYTHING for 2 more hours and nothing works.

Mia agrees to take it to the shop for me while I go to class and even tho, I'm broke without a computer and phone or any way to access my funds...i'm looking on the brightside...things can't reallllyyyy get worse right?

So on my way to lunch I decided to listen to my ipod and put it on shuffle...and like an angelic chorous singing Alleluia Christ is here...i hear the powerful words CRIME MOB HOOOEEE!! And "Knuck if you buck" starts playing...

For those of you that don't know or didn't see my other post....Knuck if you buck has a strange power over me...all of a sudden my shoulders were relaxed and pushed back, my head was high, my eyes slightly squinted, i began walking to the beat and before I knew it I had a smug smirk on my face. All was well with the world. Granada was MY TOWN...as I walked people moved out of my way...a dog even looked at me and moved towards me but i gave it ONE good look and it wimpered and cowered back to its owner. I remembered tha I brought my Wachovia bank card...things were looking up. Thats when I knew...things really were going to get better. I had transferred the bad luck. I had RECLAIMED THE VICTORY, I had told the bad luck to SUCK IT, and you know...i felt darn good about it...

Content with my reclamation, I went to lunch where Mia texted me that the store was closed...but you I was in my groove...i figured...no pasa nada, i can go back tomorrow when i don't have class, i know its not broken because i told the bad luck buh-bye.

I should have known better...

The next day I go...and with the man at the store's rough spanglish and my limited espangles...he informed me that I should buy a new computer because it would take €600 to fix what he thought might be the problem and even still the computer was just continue to get worse...

That was when I entered deep mourning...

All the while, I was awaiting my bank of america card...but I'd told my parents about my wachovia card, which I hadn't used since the 11th grade, but they could put money in my account.

Soooo at this point its mid week, my dad put money in my account so in an ideal world I should have been able to withdrawl money...right?

WRONG.

Before I withdrew the money I decided to not make the same mistake and to call the people so that they would not freeze my account. My dad asked for a number I could call when he put the money and everything so all bases were covered...


WRONG AGAIN.

After the woman told me that it was noted, I tried to withdrawl money....DENIED.

I was superbly PISSED and called wachovia again. Only for them to tell me that my account was Dormant, and I had to tell them to remove the dormant status for me to be able to use my card, which took about 24 hours.

OF course, no one felt the need to let me know this minor detail in the two Other interactions with them...so the guy theennnn had the audacity to ask me if I wanted the dormant status removed...Never in my life have I even been so tempted to say the N word...i was just like YESSSS sir!

Later on that day I was going to volunteer with a friend of mine...and we of course got lost...but at that point I didn't even care I just knew that something good had to be coming because I was being placed in the most UNFORTUNATE situations...

By the time we got there an hour later...they told us that they didn't need volunteers until later on in the month and they'd call us.

I thought about getting realllyyyy irritated that I'd spent and hour and a half looking for a place that basically told me I wasn't needed...but i charged it to the game and kept on chuggin

i felt like the engine that could--nt

but i decided that MAYBE JUST MAYBE tomorrow, Thursday, would be a better day.

The next I got up...a little different than my naively optomistic days...and I made it my goal to just get through the day...

At 1 o'clock....

I decided to try my luck with my atm/debit card...(knowing good and well i didnt remember my pin)....and

*da-da-da-dahhh*

IT WOORRRKKKEEEDDDD!!!!

la mala suerte ha salido y la buena suerte viene!!! I was ecstatic and mia and i celebrated all weekend with pizza hut, tapas, and mcDs =)

And since then NOTHINGS been that bad...

Still don't have a comp...but its all good I'll get one again eventually =)


I call this one "MACBLISS" R.I.P (2006-2009)