Some Nights in Murcia...

Michiel & me, Granda, June 15, 2013

From the streets and mountains of Murcia, to the sprawling boulevards of Valencia, through the magical gardens of the Alhambra, and in and every damn playground we could find from Spain to Romania, my friends and I treated the act of having fun like a contact sport and a drinking game.

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There isn't much to be said about me reliving my college partying days on an epic scale of  international and therefore ridiculous "come home with the sun" proportion, aside from the obvious in that it was a lot of fun . In 10 months I literally drank more beer than I had in all four years of undergrad (because I didn't really do beer in undergrad and had upgraded almost exclusively to vodka once I got to grad school), discovered the upper limits of my alcohol/consciousness limits...twice (St. Patrick's Day was the set up!), loved and loathed la madrugada, and got to know some of my fellow expat friends in awesome, terrible, and hilarious ways.

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While it may appear that this aspect of my experience is purely superficial, I assure you it's not. Naturally, I learned what most not quite 30 year olds do in these situations. That drinking and dancing till sun up on a regular basis is best left to those age 25 and under. Needless to say, I won't be drinking down that road nearly as much this year in Madrid. But I also learned how to have fun in almost any setting--including an alternative/rocker dive bar that went from being the last place my bougie ass would ever go, to my favorite hangout (and not just because they made really good 5 euro caipirinhas). I've since discovered a broader segment of rock and alternative music I formerly overlooked and I'm loving it. (check out Two Door Cinema Club and Penguin Prison, I implore you!)

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Towards the end of "Season 1" of what we now collectively now refer to as the adventures of the Murcia Shore, my friends and I decided that we had to commemorate our time together in a special way. And that special way was through song, as inspired by our unwavering love for all things Glee and this youtube video. Please, however, bear in mind that with the exception of Michiel and Charlotte, none of us can actually sing. But details such as those hardly matter when there are memories to be made, and music to be recorded and auto-tuned in the Murcia Shore Recording Studio (aka Michiel's bedroom). So if the pictures haven't shown you enough of our fun, I think this video says the rest.

Video by Keith James Lewis, one my favorite people in the world <3

Till the next time in backwards story telling...