I Want My MTV!

Well, now that the lovely trip down memory lane is taken care of, I can move on to much more interesting things....like what I did this weekend!

Actually, the sad fact of the matter is that much of my weekend was spent sleeping. I find myself being tired a lot lately, but I know it's just because of the time change and the fact that I leave my apartment to go to work before the sun comes up and I get home after the sun is down. It'll take my body a while to get used to this winter rhythm, but I'm slowly but surely getting there.

So anyway, Friday night was spent with my fellow teachers. Last year we started a Friday tradition of going out for drinks immediately after school lets out for the weekend. This tradition started out fairly tame. We met at a bar close to the school, had a drink and talked about the week, and all went home. However, our Fridays have turned into quite the spectacle as Spaniards really don't know how to go without a party. So these Friday evenings with the other teachers have turned into an all evening, rack up a nice bar tab, get loud and rowdy kinda evenings. But it's a blast and I often tell myself that this is just one of the many things that only happens in Spain.

Saturday was fairly normal, met up with my friend Lupe and her roommates and we went out on the town.

Sunday, however, was the big MTV day here in Madrid. Every year a different European city hosts the MTV European Video Music Awards and it just so happened that Madrid was the host this year. This translated into good news for me because that meant a huge free concert right in the middle of the city.

Now normally when I hear the word "free" before anything, I automatically jump to the conclusion that it will be a cheap, watered-down, dollar store version of whatever the thing is. So upon first hearing of the concert, I thought it would be groups like "Johnny and the Peanut Butter Cups" or "The Bubonic Plagues" or some other random group that no one has ever heard of.

But no.

This concert was bringing in 30 Seconds to Mars, Katy Perry, and Linkin Park. Oh, and just a little surprise appearance by Kanye West. (who, although I think he is a HUGE douche, I was excited to see in person) So the set list was cool, the environment was cool (right next to a big famous Madrid monument, and the price was cool (€0).

Here are a few pictures taken from the concert:

This was taken during the 30 Seconds to Mars show. You can see the Puerta de Toledo, one of Madrid's famous landmarks, lit up as the backdrop to the stage. Very, very cool.

And here is a shot of the stage as Katy Perry was singing her new song "Firework."

And a little close-up shot of Katy on the screen while she was singing. Not a bad live performer, despite her trying to say a few simple phrases in Spanish and completely butchering them. I mean, I'm definitely not a fluent Spanish speaker, but hearing her pronounce the few things in Spanish made me cringe.

So definitely a good weekend.