The MicroTheatre

      Last night, some classmates and I went to a MicroTheatre through an optional event that our study abroad program provided.
      Before the shows began, one of the bar workers told us to silence our phones and a bunch more that I didn't fully understand (a theme of the night).
      Down in the basement of this little bar, there were 5 tiny rooms set up for people to come and watch short 15 minute performances. There were never more than 15 people watching a play at one time.
      The first show we saw was in Sala 5 (Sala means room). I thought it was about 2 drunk girls in the bathroom, but after learning what happened from our guest instructor, I found out that it was actually one girl in an argument with her conscience as she struggled with her drunken state.

      The next show was in Sala 3. It was about 2 nuns and 1 sick girl. The sick girl dies and then comes back to life and one of the nuns thinks this is a miracle and the other thinks it is all a lie. 

      The believer decides to kill the girl with a pillow so that Christ could prove his existence by repeating the miracle. After she does this however, the sick girl doesn't initially come back to life and the believer starts to think she murdered the sick girl. She then left the room in distress. 

      The non-believer nun is left alone with the dead girl, but she comes back to life again. The non-believer kills the sick girl again and gives up on being a nun even after discovering the miracle was true. She didn't want to be a nun any longer and this miracle wasn't going to change that.

     The third and final play that we went to was in Sala 4. It was about a man that was contemplating suicide in the bathroom (I think they choose settings like this because it perfectly fit the size of the room the performances took place in). A women comes in and is willing to do it for him. She is a representative of the government that specializes in this kind of thing. She makes him pay for the paperwork for 20 euro, multiple pens at 1 euro a piece (she sold him a green pen first, but then clarified after that he needed to fill out the paperwork in blue or black ink), and eventually 100 euro for the actual act of assisted suicide. The play was a joke on how the government is always getting your money from you somehow.
      Our friend Ryan was given a sticker at the start of the show (we were nervous for him because we weren't sure exactly what this role entailed). At the end, the women took the pistol that she killed the other actor with and shot Ryan. Being the funny guy that he is, he went with the joke and immediately dropped to the ground acting as if he was shot. The tiny crowd got a good laugh out of it.

       Overall, it was a great experience and I think my Spanish listening skills may have improved just a little bit. From the first show to the last, I actually began to comprehend the plot lines a little bit more each time. Afterwords, our group went to a restaurant and grabbed some food and drinks. I am happy to have made some solid friends during my time here. This photo is of Sirena, Myself, Ryan, Kaitlyn, and Bruno (Left to Right).

       This being my last weekend in Madrid, I decided that I wasn't going to go home and went out by myself. I went to the dinky little pool bar that my London friends had shown me and talked with the bartender as a sipped from my Mahou.

      We talked about sports, culture, and women. I was the only person in the bar and he said on many nights this was just the way it is. After I finished my beer (and my corn nuts that the bartender remembered that I love), I payed, thanked the bartender for his hospitality, and headed out.
      I went to Casa Camacho for my favorite local drink, a Yayo. A Yayo is a drink with an ungodly amount of gin and vermouth with a little bit of sweet water and a lemon. It sounds gross, but I actually love them (and for only 2 euros how could you go wrong?). I looked around the bar as I drank my Yayo and learned that Casa Camacho is a bar classified as a traditional establishment of Madrid according to some award that they had won. I can see why this bar would be considered this, because it is super cool and almost always packed.
      After a while, I met an English fellow and his Spanish girlfriend. They invited me to join them as they met up with the Spanish girl's sister at her graduation party at a discoteca close by. She told me she wanted to introduce me to a bunch of Spanish girls (muy bueno, no?) and I wasn't going to say no to that.
      I went to the bar and talked with my new friends for a while as we danced to the most random collection of American music I think I have ever listened to. It went from Chicago to Bruno Mars to Michael Jackson and so on. After a few drinks, I decided to call it a night and said goodbye to my new friends. They put their information in my phone, so maybe I will be seeing them again before I head back to the states.

Thanks for reading,
      RCE