Madrid Day One

I am writing from Madrid, here on the culminating leg of the project I'd been working on in Oregon. I've not even been here 24 hours, but so many different things have happened, and I've felt so many different things I don't know how to express them all.

I got on the plane at Newark, which is such a pain in the ass to get to, but I thought for the first time, was not a bad airport -- in fact it seems much calmer than JFK. The thing about flying east is that you fly forward into the "future" so we were flying into a sunrise.
I barely slept on the plane. Flying over Madrid, the city seemed very spacious and flat. I was supposed to take a taxi from the airport to the hostel we were staying, but once I got off the plane I decided to take the Metro. My initial reactions to Madrid: I love it here!!! On the Metro everything is like orange and green and pink, very clean. Out on the street, beautiful buildings. Reminded me a little bit of Berlin, but not bombed out. Plus my 6 years of middle & high school Spanish is actually paying off now!

I checked into the youth hostel, and then fell into a few hours of fitful sleep -- so mcuh noise going on, terrible 90's alt-rock blaring in the corridor. I got up around 5PM to buy a toothbrush. The only plan for the day was to have dinner with everyone at 9PM. Apparently dinner NEVER happens before 9PM. Also all the stores are closed from 2PM - 5PM for siesta. Waaaa!!!!
I met up with my "team mates" Hana, Juan and Kevin in the afternoon, and we went over some updates. There were some problems with the rehearsal & production. Oh, like, the theater we are supposed to be rehearsing & performing in had recently lost its artistic director and had put its entire staff on break. Great! Also many of the artists had been going through HELL just to get to Madrid -- the Filipinos had to re-book their flight because they needed a special visa (which they didn't have) in order to transfer flights in Amsterdam -- and the Cameroonians having to pay an additional 400 Euro at the airport even though all of their visas and paperwork were in order. (Not clear on what the problem is, vague references to political/bureaucratic corruption) Somehow, none of this was surprising to me. And I also knew that Emilya was fighting to get everything to work out. The woman needs a masseuse to follow her around the world.

At 9PM we went to this restaurant (I am running out of time, so I will speed blog). They didn't let us in for a while because they weren't ready for us.
There was a full moon. Today was also the once-a-year huge all-night arts festival called La Noche en Blanco (The Night in White) where there were performances and art museums open all night til 7AM.
At dinner I just kept looking up and down the table, such a great vibe, and artists from all over the world. SO EXCITING.
Here are Juan (U.S.), Liam (Netherlands) and Kevin (Germany).
A surprise entrance by Gunther!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Unbelievable food and dessert (all food pix for shit).
Frank, the German director -- great to see him, since he was also in Manila 2 years ago. And on the right, Marcos, the hip-hop director/performer, Filipino raised in Belgium, now in Amsterdam. He had such amazing energy, and great stories.
Juan, Hana and I ventured into the night. There was going to be a man walking a tightrope across two buildings. THOUSANDS of people on the street. The tightrope however, did not happen, as the wind was too strong. Mob scene almost killed us.