A Gnarls Barkley kind of day

I work four days a week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.

While it would be a thousand times better to have Monday or Friday off, it doesn't look like there's any chance of my schedule changing until next semester.

So since today's Thursday, and I don't work today, here's a post about what there is to do in Madrid on a Thursday while everyone else is working.



1. Sleep in until 11
2. Do laundry
3. Feed sourdough starter w/ 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of warm water and let sit in a warm place until bubbly. Then refrigerate until you feel like baking something.
4. Make a bookmark out of scrap scrapbook paper and a page torn out of The Great Gatsby.
5. Listen to Gnarls Barkley
6. Drink 2 cups of Eroski (local supermarket) brand instant coffee. With plenty of sugar. It's the most sour coffee I've ever tasted, but I'm too stubborn to throw it away.
7. Read blog by a watercolor artist who makes paintings out of NYC craigslist.com missed connections posts.
8. Shower
9. Listen to more Gnarls Barkley
10. Read about upcoming events in Madrid on couchsurfing.com. While listening to Gnarls Barkley.
11. Get sick of listening to Gnarls Barkley and start listening to Cat Stevens
12. Buy carrots, flour, and a bottle of red wine. For a rainy day.
13. Look around bedroom and consider tidying up a bit.
14. Decide to tidy up another day.
15. Paint nails. Bright red.
16. Make and eat tuna salad with toast.
17. Drink another cup of sour Eroski-brand instant coffee. Gross.
18. Eat chocolate with almonds. Lots of it. (Helps get rid of the instant coffee aftertaste)
19. Go to Goya to see an exhibition/video series on the history of psychiatry: Psiquiatria: salud o muerte en vida (English title of the exhibit: Psychiatry--an industry of death)
http://madridfree.com/psiquiatria-salud-o-muerte-en-vida/
20. Take notes
21. Go to a local park and have a non-sour cafe con leche while reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and people watching.
22. Return home, thinking cynical thoughts.
23. Think about studying some basic French.
24. Decide not to.
25. Google the sponsor of the psychiatry exhibition. Find out that the organization is closely tied to scientology. Feel glad that I only left my e-mail address and not my home address or phone number on the questionnaire at the end of the exposition.
26. Google directions to a bar in Lavapies where some couchsurfers are meeting up for dinner.
27. Meet up with a friend named Ruben at a stop on the 4 line. Go together to said bar in Lavapies to meet up with some random couchsurfers
28. Drink beer (Mahou). Eat boquerones. Meet a girl from Texas. And a girl from Brazil. And a couple of guys from Andalucia. Drink another beer. Eat a fried potato-pepper-chicken thing. Chat. Drink one more beer. Eat a tostada (toast) with jamon (Spanish cured ham) and tomato.
29. Walk with the group to Salitre 36 (address) to see a live forro band. Forro is a type of Brazilian music/dance that I had never heard of before.
30. Try to dance forro. Do it badly and end up dancing a weird mix of merengue and freestyle-ish-hip-hop-ish dance.
31. Continue dancing.
32. Take the metro home.
32. Drink green tea and set alarm to wake up for work tomorrow.
33. Go to sleep at 1:15.


I guess having Thursdays free isn't so bad after all. :-)