Thursday 07 Oct 2010
--------------------
Woke up around 7:30am Spain time.
9am lunch,
10 to 11 one on one with Javier, inspiring to learn about his humble background and raise into an enterprenure.
11 to 12 Free time
12 to 1 again one on one with Ramon
1 to 2 one on one with
2 to 3 lunch.... hahaha spanish lunch time is 2pm and dinner is around 9pm,, 3 to 5 is siesta time.. they live their life and not work to live.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Oct 06 - 1st Acting as Woody Allen
Wednesday Oct 06 2010
---------------------
Day of my first acting in front of a group of people with a script as Woody Allen who just had is wife divoce him and go away to mexico... how similar is lifes happenings.
8 to 9,,,, phew,, finish my first ever attempt at something I could only watch others.... acting on stage,,, as Woody Allen... wow.... phew!... never in my wildest dreams did I ever even think I would be able do it before I die...
another milestone achieved in my life.
---------------------
Day of my first acting in front of a group of people with a script as Woody Allen who just had is wife divoce him and go away to mexico... how similar is lifes happenings.
8 to 9,,,, phew,, finish my first ever attempt at something I could only watch others.... acting on stage,,, as Woody Allen... wow.... phew!... never in my wildest dreams did I ever even think I would be able do it before I die...
another milestone achieved in my life.
Oct 05 - Salsa, Flamenco, Cha-cha
Tuesday Oct 05 2010
-------------------
Marisa halped me book the Hotel Palma for 35 euros double room. near to Gran Via. Owe her big time, as I saw the rates for other hotels have gone up. this time hope to dance at the Sol and other places.
Hostal Palma
Calae Plama 61
Metro Noviciada
Tel 91 532 7011
Falmenco with Sandra of London UK who said she had visited Kerala. wow.
Ball room cha-cha with the rest of the people great class by Marisa.
After dinner we had a pagan ritual with a sweet tasting drink marisa made.
Then after that my frist cha-cha dancing, with Maria, then salsa with Jill,, followed by merengue,,, then with Gaby.
Back to dancing with Maria who works at the reception, she was so easy to lead, and she just follwed when I cross body lead her.... wow... If I was living here I could possibly fall in love with her so easily.
Great place to come retire, just like in Mahe/tellicherry ... but with the extra of Wine at every lunch and dinner.
-------------------
Marisa halped me book the Hotel Palma for 35 euros double room. near to Gran Via. Owe her big time, as I saw the rates for other hotels have gone up. this time hope to dance at the Sol and other places.
Hostal Palma
Calae Plama 61
Metro Noviciada
Tel 91 532 7011
Falmenco with Sandra of London UK who said she had visited Kerala. wow.
Ball room cha-cha with the rest of the people great class by Marisa.
After dinner we had a pagan ritual with a sweet tasting drink marisa made.
Then after that my frist cha-cha dancing, with Maria, then salsa with Jill,, followed by merengue,,, then with Gaby.
Back to dancing with Maria who works at the reception, she was so easy to lead, and she just follwed when I cross body lead her.... wow... If I was living here I could possibly fall in love with her so easily.
Great place to come retire, just like in Mahe/tellicherry ... but with the extra of Wine at every lunch and dinner.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Oct 04 2010 Mon Great Hikers Paradise
Monday Oct 04 2010
------------------
First day full at Valdalavilla.... great place to hike in the mountains,,, reminded me of some of the hikes and locations I got to see
Its 4:30pm rather 10:30am EST and I am the only one sitting at the bar and the cute receiptionist/bar tender.. who does not speak much english but she helped me by putting on the Real madrid football game channel yesterday.
5pm we have group meeting and the again meeting one on one with the spanish people from 6 to 7:50pm
------------------
First day full at Valdalavilla.... great place to hike in the mountains,,, reminded me of some of the hikes and locations I got to see
Its 4:30pm rather 10:30am EST and I am the only one sitting at the bar and the cute receiptionist/bar tender.. who does not speak much english but she helped me by putting on the Real madrid football game channel yesterday.
5pm we have group meeting and the again meeting one on one with the spanish people from 6 to 7:50pm
Oct 03 2010 Sun
Sunday Oct 03 2010
------------------
Woke up and headed to the breakfast brunch they had down. Had to pay about 8 Euros for that. Kind of feeling funny trying to adjust to 6 hrs time difference.
Got packed and set for the next trip and checking out.
9:45am was the pick up to Valdalavilla via Soria.
bus starts off at 10:30am
reaach Val around 2pm in between stop at Medinacelli for lunch and walking around a bit. This was a town on top of the hill over looking a valley and seemed to have lots of history associated to it.
Got talking with Jesus who was doing his Phd in micro biology. nice guy and then at medinaceli got talking with Jose who is an spanish engineer.
After reaching Valalavilla we get our own indiviual rooms. Jesues, Donald and me get a house with our own bedrooms and attached toilets.
------------------
Woke up and headed to the breakfast brunch they had down. Had to pay about 8 Euros for that. Kind of feeling funny trying to adjust to 6 hrs time difference.
Got packed and set for the next trip and checking out.
9:45am was the pick up to Valdalavilla via Soria.
bus starts off at 10:30am
reaach Val around 2pm in between stop at Medinacelli for lunch and walking around a bit. This was a town on top of the hill over looking a valley and seemed to have lots of history associated to it.
Got talking with Jesus who was doing his Phd in micro biology. nice guy and then at medinaceli got talking with Jose who is an spanish engineer.
After reaching Valalavilla we get our own indiviual rooms. Jesues, Donald and me get a house with our own bedrooms and attached toilets.
Oct 02 2010 Sat, First day in Madrid
Satuerday Oct 01 2010
------------------
7:40 am land in Madrid, local time, go thru the wrong line, was ment for EU citizens. then had to get back into the end of another line. Was asked what I am going to do in Spain, said, may go visit Porutgal or go to Czech republic. And mostly in madrid to visit muesuems.
by the time i got to the luggage pick up, my luggage was not there as by then it was some other airlines. in panick mode asked the green dressed police. Who did not seem to speak any english... okay here is my first encounter in an non-english speaking country and the start of the universal language of signs.
they point me in a general direction, what looked like some Airline counter. Go there and see my luggage was kept outside. Tell the guys that its my luggage and in broken english he asks me for my ticket. show him the ticket and get my luggage.
Now to get to the Metro.
Was walking along atleast know to read the script guiding me to the Metro. Gosh it would probably a bigger nightmare not been able to even read the script. Imagine been in countries where I cannot read the script. China, japan. korea.
See a tourist info counter with a huge queue. hahaha people from europe complain about indians not having the disciplin and cutting lines,, these guys here seem to do it too.. Great eye opener to their Double talk and bull shit of culture and superirority.
The impatient lady at the tourist info seems more interested in giving me a prepared lecture than been able to answer my quesiton about the Abino tourist pass for the metro I wanted. She seemed surprised and looked like someone hearing about that for the first time and said that there is no pass like that.
So make my way to the exit and hop on to a bus that would take me to the Terminal closest to the Metro. once there see an information center for Metro. with two lovely girls. Ask them if they spoke english. With a poker grumpy face she says yes and so ask her about where I could get the day pass. She says she has it, again not a trace of smile. Good english, but grumpy looking customer service.
Get the Abino or abano tourist pass (latter realized that I could get that at vending machine too), and make my way down the esclators. just following the crowd and looking at the metro map. Glad I did a bit of home work in philly about the trains and connection trains to take.
Reach Euro building around 10:30am. pass a Burger king on the way. Shocked to see that they only open after 12 noon and open till 12 midnight.
The guy at the euro building checks my reservation and then says the my room is not ready and it may take about another hour. Atleast this guy seems to be trying to speak some english. Must be the guy I spoke to on the phone trying to make the reservation.
Ask him if I could leave the luggage there and take a walk out towards the real madrid stadium
The streets seem deserted @10:30 am did hear that the spanish party till early morning and then sleep the whole satruday and then hit the clubs again on Sat night.
The only crowd seems to be at the stadium, where people were getting down bus loads. Must be one of the most popular attractions.
Around 12noon get back to the Euro building and still the room is not ready. So take a walk to burger king and have my break fast or is it late dinner EST.
Again the only person speaking english there was the manager. The other people seem to be from South America and not knowing a word of english.
Get back and was given a room 412. great looking room for 65 euros. with 2 beds, kitchen with cooking pots, couch that could be pulled out into a bed. 2 tvs. Would have been great for a family.
Try to get into the shower and find that the tap was not working . Call up reception and tell the lady about it. Says will send maintence guy. and it might take upwards to an hr. Ahh i need to go out and if this guy takes an hr to come. when will i have my shower. So go down and try to talk to the guy who seemed to know a bit better english. Ask his if they could change my room so that I could have my shower. he says the rooms are not ready. dammmm here it starts the famous Spanish Customer service or lack of it.
Frustrated get back to my room and then go down again after 30 mins to find out about the maintaince guy. because now they stopped picking up my phone calls.
He says the maitance guy is coming. Get back to my room to find the maintence guy there working on the loose tap. Then he shows me the trick at holding it down and turning it. Well atleast it works. just for this one shower and one toworrow morning.
have the shower and head back to the metro towards the heart of Madrid. SOL.
walk around the place, go to the Plaza Mayor. There is an Argentinian festival going on there.
Was thinking about the Tapas evening get together organized in the Euro building. was it at 5:30 or 7:30. anyways see decide to be there by 6:30. reach back to the room around 5:30 relax a bit and then head down to the bar. And meet up with the bunch of people who said even they were confused. So have a couple of root beers and after exchanging a few pleasentaris its time to run out. Get to know that most of them were staying downtown near SOL. So I decide to join them and tell them about the Plaza mayor and the Argentinian festival going on there.
Get a few people interested, Alan, jil, kim and gaby. the others take off.
my aim was to hit the salsa club close to Sol. jill seemed interested. kim and gaby head off from the plaza mayor as kim was not taking to the crowds. jil been from NY was comfortable. I liked the crowd engery there.
we decide to walk around to find a place to eat. after walking around a bit and getting put off by the prices. Alan splits and then jil wanted to go to her room and rest up.
So I was left all alone to explore the streets of madrid. try checking on the clubs, the first one I could not find. then after asking a few people who were trying to speak english got to know that its been closed permanently. So try to go to El son. around 10pm and the club was empty. was told that it might get people by 12 midnight. Now i remember again that these guys do not come out till 1am and party on till morning.
Got a bus to catch in the morning to Soria. So decide to call it a night and go enjoy the rest of my 65 euro bed.
------------------
7:40 am land in Madrid, local time, go thru the wrong line, was ment for EU citizens. then had to get back into the end of another line. Was asked what I am going to do in Spain, said, may go visit Porutgal or go to Czech republic. And mostly in madrid to visit muesuems.
by the time i got to the luggage pick up, my luggage was not there as by then it was some other airlines. in panick mode asked the green dressed police. Who did not seem to speak any english... okay here is my first encounter in an non-english speaking country and the start of the universal language of signs.
they point me in a general direction, what looked like some Airline counter. Go there and see my luggage was kept outside. Tell the guys that its my luggage and in broken english he asks me for my ticket. show him the ticket and get my luggage.
Now to get to the Metro.
Was walking along atleast know to read the script guiding me to the Metro. Gosh it would probably a bigger nightmare not been able to even read the script. Imagine been in countries where I cannot read the script. China, japan. korea.
See a tourist info counter with a huge queue. hahaha people from europe complain about indians not having the disciplin and cutting lines,, these guys here seem to do it too.. Great eye opener to their Double talk and bull shit of culture and superirority.
The impatient lady at the tourist info seems more interested in giving me a prepared lecture than been able to answer my quesiton about the Abino tourist pass for the metro I wanted. She seemed surprised and looked like someone hearing about that for the first time and said that there is no pass like that.
So make my way to the exit and hop on to a bus that would take me to the Terminal closest to the Metro. once there see an information center for Metro. with two lovely girls. Ask them if they spoke english. With a poker grumpy face she says yes and so ask her about where I could get the day pass. She says she has it, again not a trace of smile. Good english, but grumpy looking customer service.
Get the Abino or abano tourist pass (latter realized that I could get that at vending machine too), and make my way down the esclators. just following the crowd and looking at the metro map. Glad I did a bit of home work in philly about the trains and connection trains to take.
Reach Euro building around 10:30am. pass a Burger king on the way. Shocked to see that they only open after 12 noon and open till 12 midnight.
The guy at the euro building checks my reservation and then says the my room is not ready and it may take about another hour. Atleast this guy seems to be trying to speak some english. Must be the guy I spoke to on the phone trying to make the reservation.
Ask him if I could leave the luggage there and take a walk out towards the real madrid stadium
The streets seem deserted @10:30 am did hear that the spanish party till early morning and then sleep the whole satruday and then hit the clubs again on Sat night.
The only crowd seems to be at the stadium, where people were getting down bus loads. Must be one of the most popular attractions.
Around 12noon get back to the Euro building and still the room is not ready. So take a walk to burger king and have my break fast or is it late dinner EST.
Again the only person speaking english there was the manager. The other people seem to be from South America and not knowing a word of english.
Get back and was given a room 412. great looking room for 65 euros. with 2 beds, kitchen with cooking pots, couch that could be pulled out into a bed. 2 tvs. Would have been great for a family.
Try to get into the shower and find that the tap was not working . Call up reception and tell the lady about it. Says will send maintence guy. and it might take upwards to an hr. Ahh i need to go out and if this guy takes an hr to come. when will i have my shower. So go down and try to talk to the guy who seemed to know a bit better english. Ask his if they could change my room so that I could have my shower. he says the rooms are not ready. dammmm here it starts the famous Spanish Customer service or lack of it.
Frustrated get back to my room and then go down again after 30 mins to find out about the maintaince guy. because now they stopped picking up my phone calls.
He says the maitance guy is coming. Get back to my room to find the maintence guy there working on the loose tap. Then he shows me the trick at holding it down and turning it. Well atleast it works. just for this one shower and one toworrow morning.
have the shower and head back to the metro towards the heart of Madrid. SOL.
walk around the place, go to the Plaza Mayor. There is an Argentinian festival going on there.
Was thinking about the Tapas evening get together organized in the Euro building. was it at 5:30 or 7:30. anyways see decide to be there by 6:30. reach back to the room around 5:30 relax a bit and then head down to the bar. And meet up with the bunch of people who said even they were confused. So have a couple of root beers and after exchanging a few pleasentaris its time to run out. Get to know that most of them were staying downtown near SOL. So I decide to join them and tell them about the Plaza mayor and the Argentinian festival going on there.
Get a few people interested, Alan, jil, kim and gaby. the others take off.
my aim was to hit the salsa club close to Sol. jill seemed interested. kim and gaby head off from the plaza mayor as kim was not taking to the crowds. jil been from NY was comfortable. I liked the crowd engery there.
we decide to walk around to find a place to eat. after walking around a bit and getting put off by the prices. Alan splits and then jil wanted to go to her room and rest up.
So I was left all alone to explore the streets of madrid. try checking on the clubs, the first one I could not find. then after asking a few people who were trying to speak english got to know that its been closed permanently. So try to go to El son. around 10pm and the club was empty. was told that it might get people by 12 midnight. Now i remember again that these guys do not come out till 1am and party on till morning.
Got a bus to catch in the morning to Soria. So decide to call it a night and go enjoy the rest of my 65 euro bed.
Friday, October 1, 2010
OCT - 01, Fri, Flying off to Europe
Friday, OCT 01 2010
-------------------
Got up and did more of Packing.
hahaha todays horoscope speaks volumes about what I think is an issue with me. Something I am working on reducing.
**********************************************************
Your Horoscope - Today, Oct. 1, 2010
You have a generous nature when it comes to relationships, vin. It's easy for you to give of your time, money, and energy in a way that makes life easier for others.
**********************************************************
Got to work around 7:15.. sent out the time sheets
Have now to decide what time to take off from work.. aim for 12 and maybe make it out by 12:30.
The two books I got from Borders should be of some help when I am all alone and wondering where to go.
Made it out of work, around 12:30. got to home and then did the last minute check and re-adjusting.
Got into the train around 1:20pm changed at the station before 30th. And got on to the train to airport. all for $10 day pass. nice to have the train station just outside of my appartment.
Gave the day pass to one of the guys at the security.
Got into the airport and decided to exchange my $$$$ to euros. ended up getting a lousy exchange rate and additional fees. so in effect paying 1.62 for a euro.
Flight was okay. had to pay $6 for alcoholic drinks. bummer, lousy US airways.
-------------------
Got up and did more of Packing.
hahaha todays horoscope speaks volumes about what I think is an issue with me. Something I am working on reducing.
**********************************************************
Your Horoscope - Today, Oct. 1, 2010
You have a generous nature when it comes to relationships, vin. It's easy for you to give of your time, money, and energy in a way that makes life easier for others.
**********************************************************
Got to work around 7:15.. sent out the time sheets
Have now to decide what time to take off from work.. aim for 12 and maybe make it out by 12:30.
The two books I got from Borders should be of some help when I am all alone and wondering where to go.
Made it out of work, around 12:30. got to home and then did the last minute check and re-adjusting.
Got into the train around 1:20pm changed at the station before 30th. And got on to the train to airport. all for $10 day pass. nice to have the train station just outside of my appartment.
Gave the day pass to one of the guys at the security.
Got into the airport and decided to exchange my $$$$ to euros. ended up getting a lousy exchange rate and additional fees. so in effect paying 1.62 for a euro.
Flight was okay. had to pay $6 for alcoholic drinks. bummer, lousy US airways.
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