Days Thirteen through Eighteen

Monday

A huge crop of new interns began today. From the Consular section to my very own Political, a whole handful of new people started today. The first half of the day progressed as normal, but the second half was filled with meeting Zahra, the new intern in my office, and teaching her about all the work and non-work stuff that we do in the embassy.

Tuesday

This was a relatively eventful day. It started off with me going not to work at 9 AM, but rather to a nearby hotel for a conference with José Blanco, the portavoz or "spokesperson" (literally porta = carry; voz = voice => portavoz = carry-voice) of the government of Spain. More specifically he is the portavoz of the PSOE, el Partido Socialista Obrero Español, "Spanish Socialist Worker Party", which is the ruling government of Spain and has been so, for the most part, for the past few decades. The event was very formal and I started off the event in a side room where veritable butlers served cups of coffee and I was in the room with José Blanco. To clarify, the portavoz of the government is a position somewhat like the White House Spokesperson in the US - they do the press conferences and sell the government's line, but they're a cabinet-level position. Think "Minister of Public Opinion".

The breakfast itself was in a larger room wherein sat about 200 people around tables stocked with all sorts of little breakfasty snacks, tiny sandwiches, smoothies and sweet buns, which we snacked on while listening to José Blanco give his little speech about the current state of affairs in Spain and how the PSOE was going to win in November's elections, even though every single opinion poll has them getting their ***es handed to them by the PP, Partido Popular or "Popular Party", the major right-wing party in Spain. So I ate and watched and listened and took notes for my report later.

After breakfast was over I headed back to the embassy where I wrote up my report, but in the early afternoon I had another mission: signing the condolence book at Cape Verde Embassy. Sadly, a former president of Cape Verde (an island country between Africa and South America) had died, and they sent out invitations to other embassies to come express their condolences in a book. So I reserved a car, a chauffeur drove me from the US Embassy to the Cape Verde Embassy a few blocks away, and I went up and looked over the condolence book. After learning a bit about the proper wording from seeing the previous entries in the book I signed the following:

"On behalf of the Embassy of the United States, I would like to offer my sincere condolences for the loss of the great president Aristides Pereira. Our thoughts are with the people of the Republic of Cape Verde"

Somehow, someway, it may well have been the best handwriting I have ever managed to summon in my life.

After work I went around town with Zahra and another new intern Abbey; we went by el Mercado de San Anton once again, and later stopped by a sushi places where we got Sapporo, they got sushi, and I got a "Madrid dog" which happened to be a hot dog covered with fried onion, mayonnaise, mustard, and various other stuff - it was not half bad.

Wednesday

The major event of Wednesday was the Malaysian National Day. As Zahra was the new intern in the political section and I had already had some experience with these events, we were both tasked with going. The hotel where the event was held is just across the street from the US Embassy so we walked, and upon entering found the wide variety of people and foods that I had become accustomed to at the previous National Day celebration. We met some new people, like the host from the Malaysian Embassy as well as representatives from the Venezuelan and Uzbekistan embassies and others, and at one point we got some white wine and discovered that it was the most perfect white wine that either of us had ever tasted. Fruity and full-bodied yet smooth, not too acidic...it's hard to describe, but we were both awed.

Thursday

On Thursday evening, the ambassador hosted a party at the ambassadorial residence, and all the interns were invited. All dressed up in our formal attire, we looked like we were going to prom or somesuch youthful thing – but rather, we were going to a celebration for the Hispanic Business Forum (or some such thing) and we found ourselves in a room filled with (for the most part) middle-aged Spanish men.

There’s something about these events – important people are there, and they expect to meet other important people, and so when they see me, a fresh-faced twenty-two-year-old walk in, they glance over, judge that I’m far too young to be of any use to them, and make little effort to initiate conversation. Nevertheless I did sort of force my way in to conversation with a few of them (which is what often has to happen, even amongst them) and as a result I garnered a few “good job!”s from my fellow interns for jumping into the fray.

We muddled around for a while until the Ambassador began to give his speech, and when he did…I will not speak ill of the Ambassador, but what I will say is that the level of Spanish I was expecting from an Ambassador to Spain was in no way represented in what I heard during the speech.

After the speech we muddled around a bit more, had some superb tiny little hamburger hors d’oeuvres (it is the American embassy, after all) among many other kinds of foods (again the delectable fruit-infused cheeses), but afterward we all retired home, and I, having gone the entire week without a full night’s sleep, was looking forward to some well-deserved rest.

So I may my way home, walked in the door, and before I had even taken off my tie my roommates Cyril and Ashley (the French guy and the South African guy, respectively) said “Scott, you’re going out with us tonight”. I took a few minutes to weigh in my head two thoughts: first, I am horribly exhausted; second, they are about to move out this weekend. Ultimately, spurred by their pleading, the second thought won out, and I decided to put off my good night of sleep for the next night.

I should say at this point that Ashley works for an organization called “European Vibe”, which is, essentially, a club- and party-promoting agency. As such, he is privy to the best information on clubs, as well as having the ability to put people on guest lists and VIP lists. Tonight (Thursday of all nights) he wanted to take advantage of a club called Joy. We made our way there, having a bit of wine along the way, and met a huge group of about 12 French students. Despite the fact that I have studied some French, Ashley lived in France for quite some time and as a result, my French was the weakest of anyone there, and I had to “resort” to speaking Spanish or English in order to communicate, whereas they continued their own conversations without too much heed my way.

Ultimately, we made our way into the club after some hassle and confusion at the door, but what stretched out before us was a club beyond compare: three stories of loud music, a dancefloor bedecked with dancers both male and female, both mostly lacking in clothing (no nudity, but close) and bar after bar to make sure that no one in the club was ever more than 10 feet away from some sort of overpriced alcohol.

We stayed there for a few hours but then left, I a sleepy mess, and we made our way to the night bus depot. Interestingly the night buses are called “buhos”, which is Spanish for “Owls”. I got one one and made my way home, where my bed had been up all night worrying about me.

Friday

On Friday, my fellow intern Clark wanted to have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe just down the street from the embassy, and there plans were hatched to go to the city of Toledo the next day. And oh my, what a day the day in Toledo was...