the passenger

I got back from my trip yesterday night and woohoo, how nice it is to return to the third world! People having ridiculously long conversations on the phone the second the plane touches the ground because God forbid they have to wait a couple of hours to tell their loved ones about their trip, people clapping when the plane lands because of course the pilot can hear them, taking an hour at Immigration because there are only three people working (and all the while, seeing my suitcase going round and round the belt on the other side), and taking forever to get home because three important avenues have been cut by protesters. A lovely welcome.

My trip was amazing though: I stayed at my brother and his housemate’s apartment in Madrid and was woken up each morning by their cat attacking my feet and galloping around the living room; I went to Brighton, England for two days to visit a close friend and loved it so much I would consider moving there if it didn’t rain so much (incidentally, her cat woke me up both mornings by galloping around the living room as well. No foot-attacks, though, thankfully); and I went on my first road/train trip with my brother and a friend of ours, from Prague (where my brother played at the World Ultimate Club Championships!) to Vienna to Salzburg to Füssen to Innsbruck to Venice (where my brother played a small beach tournament; I was his team’s official photographer). I ate tons, made lots of new friends, stopped looking like a sun-fearing vampire for the first time in more than three years (this means that my skin ceased to be painful to look at directly) and spent loads of quality time with my closest friends.

After five months of hardly having time to eat or sleep, this was an incredibly nice break. Now it’s back to full-time stress at least until December, but instead of being bummed about that, I’m going to be thankful for the fact that I was able to take this trip and have three weeks’ worth of nonstop fun to add to my memory bank.

Yes, I’m finally in Madrid! Having two summers in a year is awesome :D

I’m staying at my brother and Alex’s apartment (Alex is my best friend’s ex-boyfriend, my brother’s house-mate of a few years and one of my favorite people in the world). Before my trip is over, he might tattoo a few kitty paws on my foot or ankle.

I left Madrid 6 years ago and this is my fourth time visiting. A few things I had forgotten shocked me:

- How smelly people are here! I mean, I know it’s summer and all, but holy cow, the metro in Buenos Aires does not stink so bad as it does here!

- How much more attractive people are in Buenos Aires (yes, yes, very superficial of me to say, but it’s true.)

- How many people of all nationalities there are here. It’s nice :)

Also, a fucking idiot grabbed my butt on the metro today. What a great welcome. Every time something like this happens, I tell myself, “Next time, I won’t keep quiet! I’ll insult him in front of everyone and humiliate him so he never does it again!” But when the moment comes, I freeze and the words don’t come out of my mouth and I feel like an idiot, especially if afterwards the guy looks at me with an smug and idiotic grin on his face because he got away with it. This has to do partly with the fact that I’m not a confrontational person, and partly with the fact that half the people would think, “Wow, that girl’s got balls of steel! Awesome!” and half the people would think, “What an idiot. She was obviously asking for it, wearing a skirt/dress/being pretty/being a woman.”

Besides this butt incident, it’s great to be back here.