thanks so much for the wonderful replies, i always get such great feedback when i post, it keeps me going. hey madridman, let me know when you do find out the name of the dancer from lavapies, that´s where i go to flamenco class everyday. and jo-anne, please hassle me again about the small flamenco dress, i am so busy with all kinds of e-mails, sometimes they fall throug the cracks, just keep e-mailing, let me know again when you are coming and everything!!! thanks all of you, and if someone can please e-mail the info on the madrid dinner group i would love to be a part of it!!!!
missmadrid98

here is the e-mail update i sent my friends and family back home yesterday, i thought i would share it with you guys. i wish i had more time to browse the message board more often!!! here you go!! enjoy

hello everyone,

well things have picked up here. i have sorted out my job situation, i had all differnt kinds of job offers and was working all over the place. but i finally have found 2 solid jobs that give me alot of hours, so now i don´t have to work for like 5 or 6 different people and places. i start a new job may 7th, that is paying me very well and giving me alot of hours. i still have the other job i got like a month ago and they are giving me more hours and offering me summer work. both jobs pay on a monthly basis so i have to wait a whole month to get paid, whch sucks but at least i am making some money. my flamenco is going great and last night i went to a little flamenco gathering to celebrate "feria" which is a festival in sevilla. well they brought in a group here in el escorial and they played sevillanas and a few other things. i am going out WAY to much and need to rest, oh my god the excursions i have every weekend are like amazing. i made a friend named victoria that is from argentina and we go out all the time, she is a professional salsa dancer, so we go salsa dancing alot, i have got to know all these people that work in all the salsa places so i never pay to go out which helps alot since i´m broke. we have alot of fun together, it feels like we have been friends all our lives, it´s also cool to have a girlfriend to talk to and share all those girl things with and laugh, i needed a girlfriend to hang with and talk with, she´s really great and alot of fun. i also made another girlfriend named rhonda, she´s a member on the message board as well, and we have alot of fun together and do all those girl things, i really enjoy hanging with her alot!!! I still go out in my little town, and dance all the time, one guy came up to me and called me by my name, and i asked him how did you know my name and he said " maria cristina you are famous here, everyone knows you" i was like oh goodness, i have alot of fun there cause they play all kinds of music to dance to. i have also made another friend in town named jan, he´s a spaniard that lives in el escorial and went to chicago last year. he practices his english with me, he´s alot fun, he comes over to hang out or make dinner or something and we laugh and i correct his english. The only time i speak in english is when i teach and it´s very slow with alot of hand gestures, i am going to go back home to visit talking like a mentally handicapped person. me and gonzalo still hang out, we went to a soccer game last saturday, my goodness what a riot, literally, Real Madrid was playing the team from pamplona and there was a little section that the people from pamplona were sitting, there were all dressed in red cause that´s the color of the team, and the whole stadium was cussing at them, and flipping them off and the people from pamplona were shouting " madrid hijo de puta" and then all the people got mad and started throwing things at them, and gonzalo was just sittineg there smoking his cigrette like nothing was going on, i was like, dude this is so cool. they don´t sell alcohol at all in the stadium cause it would make things dangerous. so all the bars around the stadium are PACKED with people drinking, so when they go in they are all smashed. another experience for the book. it was like when i went to go see the bullfight with zandra and marissa, which reminds me i am going to the feria of san isidro, which is in like 2 weeks, bullfights everyday with the best matadors in spain, i like bullfights alot, i am planning to go in a few weeks when the fiesta starts. well let´s see what else, well i would really like to see a movie in english. they put movies on tv everyday here, and they are usually all american movies. but they dub them in spanish, and it just doesn´t work for me you know. cause i was watchng an eddie murphy movie in spanish and eddie murphy speaking spanish, just doesn´t fly you know, it´s not working for me. ( dude they are playing "maneater" from hall & Oats in this cyber cafe right now... oooo here she comes, watch out boy she´ll chew you up,) anyways, today is was SNOWING in el escorial, i was like " okay what the hell is this, it´s MAY people, MAY i am in spain not norway, where there is the sun, it´s even pouring in the south of spain, i have had a 4 month winter and i am so ready for the good weather. it was weird cuase the weather was nice for like 3 weeks now it´s snowing, i´m like " i give up, i surrender" well may 5th will be 4 months since i have landed, and sometimes
i realize " goodness i live here" i have adapted so well and so quickly that i forgot that i am an american from the east side of los angeles (i woulld like to make a shout out to my homeboy and girls in the SGV hood!!!!!!) just kidding. anyways, i heard rap song the other day and i never enjoyed a rap song so much in my life since 1989, cause i understood all the slang they were speaking, and i felt one with the radio, like ya these are my people. after a while you just want to talk to someone who understands you. but anyways i better go cause cause my time is running out in the cyber cafe i miss you all and i might be coming back in august cause there is no work here and all the spaniards leave for vacation, so i might come back for a month to visit.
love you all!!!

MCB

happy in spain!!!!

[ 05-02-2001: Message edited by: MadridMan ]

Maria Cristina

It was me that saw Paco Pena and his dancers. Oddly, there were no programmes for the evening, but there was an article in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago about the dancer, so when I get it back off the friend I lent it to I will let you know her name. She is 23, that I do remember.

Keep the inspirational activities up!

Jo-Anne

Maria Cristina!

You go girl!!! Keep up the good work and the good livin'! Great to hear from you!
Jen

Maria Cristina, it's EXCELLENT to hear about your adventures! I can almost picture myself there in Spain with you!

Thanks for keeping me in touch with my dream. Someday...maybe I'll be an old lady, but I'll live there too!

Maria Cristina

Got the newspaper article about Paco Pena back now:

The dancer from Lavapies was called Noelia Vicente, but she is originally from Bueonos Aires, she is 23.

The guitarists were the Losada Brothers, I think. And singers - Angel Gabane and Antonio Reyes.

I don't have much info because this performance was a one off, tagged on to the end of a London tour, and didn't have any programmes or info at all. It was quite frustrating really.

Jo

[ 05-03-2001: Message edited by: Jo-Anne ]

well guys i am glad to say i now have 2 firm jobs and one of them is doing my papers for me!!!!!!! very happy, flamenco is great and so is everything else. i am really busy during the week working and going to flamenco, but the weekends and in between going from work to flamenco I chill and have a caña! life´s great!

here is the update i sent back home!! enjoy!


well here is another update on how my life is here in spain. well last weekend i met this american guy named john from philidelphia (total east coast accent.. love it) i met him at this terrible discoteque named "black jack" me and rhonda only went there cause it´s free to get in and we didn´t know where else to go. its packed with touristsand the only spaniards there
are guys looking for foreigners to pick up on, (cant stand it), anyways this one american guy was there cause this one spanish guy brought him there. i was talking to him and i told him "dude this is crap, i´ll show you real spain, this is a sleazy disco in sol". so i gave him my number and he said his friend matt was coming in the next day. so i told him to call me
tommorow (after 5:00 cause i am sleeping) and we´ll make plans for you and your friend to come to el escorial and hang out on sunday. well he called me and him and his friend came up to el escorial on sunday. i showed them the monastery and cool little spots where all you can hear are the birds chirpìng. after all that pretty sightseeing we went to about 7 different bars and drank wine all day and ate tapas, they loved it!!!!!! they were so happy, they are like "and you live here in this beautiful town and do this all the time" i was like "oh yeah it´s great!!" well they hung out all day and night. we were up till like 4:00am they ended up crashing at my pad. well they were going to go to andalucia for the week but would call me to out again next weekend and i told them i would show them some really cool authentic spanish places and some real flamenco. they called the following friday and we went out all night. i took them to a tavern place ( well a few taverness places) to eat tapas and drink sagnria then i took them to "la solea" to see real gypies dance and play flamenco. they were astounded. they were really submersed in the real deal, they didn´t know what to do. we had so much fun. they kept thanking me like a hundred times, they were like we would have never of found these places thanks so mucccccchhh. well i had alot of fun. anyways let´s what´s else is new. i guess it´s the same stuff, go out, work, eat, hang out, dance flamenco... life´s great i might be making a few weekend trips to some places, i´ll let you guys know when i decide and fill you in. sometimes it still doesn´t dawn on me i live here. It´s a holiday today (what´s new) so i didn´t work today, so i went to sit in front of the monastery, i am translating a spanish history book, so i went to go sit in front of the monastery and do that for while (gee life´s rough sometimes huh?) and i sat for a moment looking at it while the children played in front of it. i thought about how many times i would sit at my computer at work with 25 different pictures of the monstaery in front of me wishing to be there just for a minute.... and there i was and i pictured myself in one of those pictures i would have in front of my computer, and thought.. here i am, right where i wnat to be! crazy huh. it´s like jumping into a picture, like in the movie mary poppins, i was like i want to be there and poof here i am. well there is always so much to tell, every little walk i take has a story, i wish sometimes i could have so many of you here with me to see it all and experience it with me ( i know some of you are going to come visit right?) it´s amazing when i see people i know walking in madrid, i´m like " gee i´m in a city in europe and i am seeing people i know walking on the street crazy" i could go on and on, but i won´t bore you all. i will be comiung to visit in sugust for like the month, so i will hang out with all of you and tell all the stories and show all the slides ( i won´t show the ones of me dancing on the tables okay?) but i will show all the other ones. i really want some peanut buuter and a good cheese enchilada combination plate, but it will have to wait till i get there. oh ya, i found this american grocery store here in madrid. i was almost moved to tears when i saw the box of pop tarts, i was like " oh jesus....... can it be... yes it´s pop tarts... OH THERE IS A GOD, but then i saw the price and i was like oh no i´ll wait to go back to los angeles and buy it with my club card at ralphs. i forgot these things are imported so they cost more. but i did buy the pack of 25 flour tortillas, they were like 2 bucks. i also bought a pack of reese´s pieces, i was chomping on those things like a rabid animal as i walked out of the place i was like " oh is that my change ya thanks" dude i went home and cooked like bean and cheese burritos and quesadillas till i turned blue (this one american girl brought me 6 cans of rosarita refried beans so i was like oh yeah mama´s having bean and cheese burritos TO-NIGHT) well i better go time is running out and so is the cafe´ con leche!!!

hasta luego
and VIVA SPAIN AND MOVING HERE WITH NO REAL IDEA HOW IT WAS GOING TO WORK OUT... OLE! toma ke toma

MCB

[ 05-15-2001: Message edited by: MadridMan ]

hello guys i would like to give a small update on how things are going. well i have been here for 6 months now and things have smoothed out. i am working alot all over madrid and trying to make ends meet. i get paid on a monthly basis so in july when i get paid for june i will get paid bank cause i am working ALOT!!! i won´t be making to much money in july cause there isn´t to much work in july. with my free time in july i am going to go to Jerez and dance flamenco and lie on the beach, and i also want to go back to santander and lie on the beach there too and party at night!! my life here in spain is what i always dreamt it woudl be. it has been hard at first and i can honestly say that i really don´t want to get on the metro again in my life ( i ride the metro 6 to 8 times a day i AM the metro map of madrid) i find my self in between work relaxing in retiro or wandering around up and down all the little streets in madrid exploring. i go to free museums and hang out in plazas and or go into free tours of places ( i finding all the free stuff in madrid!!!) i sometimes read my flamenco magazine in parks or sit on a bench and watch people go by and listen to all the sounds of spain. from time to time i still have a hard time realizing what i have done. i will update my website when i can i just haven´t had the money to spend hours at a cyber cafe to do it. but i am collecting all the info i have here to update it. every morning i wake up and pull the shade up and see the BEAUTIFUL Abantos mountain beckoning at my window with he sound of all the people walking around below my window buying their daily bread or listen to the birds fly around my window. then i go into my living room and look out the window and see the HUGE monastery beautiful as it stands greeting me.. every moring. it´s a great way to start your day ever morning, and i great way to live! i am soooooo happy and have no complaints i don´t ever want to move back to the united staates of america, from here i am only goign to other places, but goodness i could never imagine living in the u.s. again. i am soo happy here and can you guys fillme in on the madrid dinner i would love to attend!! and remember i am always here for all those people who wnat to come visit and need help or info!!! all the best!!

Hi MissMadrid:

I really hope that you can come to our dinner group. You have done something that I'd love to do, but fear to do. Sometimes people have a hard time exiting their comfort zones, but you did it and your life sounds so peaceful. I'm sure life still gets in the way, but if we are going to live life, we should at least live it in a place that brings us the most joy. I have attached the thread for our dinner group on June 30 at La Gallette. E-mail with more questions. I put the restaurant location and time up on the Dinner Group in Madrid, Spain thread... http://www.madridman.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=17&t=000275
Hope to see you there, roses.