Abitudini Spagnole

Posted by Alex | | Posted On Wednesday 8 September 2010 at 10:27

Last night was my first real foray into the world of Erasmus. I didn't join the Erasmus society in Cardiff, and I didn't sign up for the language course here, so really I've been pretty cut off in meeting people of a similar provenance. I missed out on three Erasmus events by not knowing of the second Erasmus grouping, but, I did know of the one last night organised by the University.

Needless to say, because it was University organised, it was fairly 'six-year-old's birthday'. We crammed into a room, ate food, chatted, and got ripped off for drinks - Sono sempre cinque was the phrase used, which means initially I paid €5 for a Corona and the food, but then had to pay another €5 for a cola. I suppose, despite meeting new people, I wasn't exactly phased by it all, and most of us just walled ourselves off into separate groupings by the end of the night while Stromae's Alors on Danse played in the background.

Eventually, we decided to go into town, and that's where things actually became more like you'd expect an Erasmus Party to be. We folks from Cardiff hopped on a bus, filled with Spaniards and the odd Portuguese and Turkish people (and two Poles), and made the journey into town. Over the course of the next five to ten minutes we were subjected to (in a good way) the Spanish and their rowdy ways - the basis of their entire ride was to shout Camarero, another would reply ¿Qué?, and the first person would shout Quiero... followed by a food or something, before turning it into a song based around that food. It's harder to explain in English, but...it's one of those moments where if  you get it, you enjoy it.

We then passed an hour or two in the Piazza del Duomo drinking beers on the steps of the church. To be fair, I did ask someone Credo che bere nelle strade fosse un'abitudine spagnolo - non è vero? (Or "I thought drinking in the street was a Spanish thing - am I wrong?) - there seemed to be more Spaniards and Portuguese than anyone else, but there was no-one telling us to move on, or to stop doing it. In fact, for €2 for a large bottle of Birra Morretti, you can't go wrong really. Though it may have been playing havoc with my eyes, because I'm sure I saw the sky flash a few times last night...though when I asked people they looked at me as if I was speaking nonsense. Weird.

So, there's no real plan for today. I think, having done a fair bit of wandering, I may take the day off, and just go into town tonight with the Cardiff folks to meet their Italian friends, as I really need to parlare as much as is humanly possible. Then there's another Erasmus party tomorrow at Malaika, though I won't be splashing out €10 on an ESN card just to save €1 on the night, as well as a trip to Genoa on Saturday (but I am totally lacking details for that bad boy).

Hopefully the weather will stop being wholly Welsh, and I can whip out the camera and get some good photos of this place up for people to see. Maybe I'll head on up to Milan, or go somewhere further afield in this free month. I shall keep you all posted!

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