On Saturday night after getting all my things moved into the piso, Aaron swung by my place to give me his seal of approval and blessings with 40's of an San Miguel. I found a quote that apparently the Romans said about the Spaniards: Beati Hispani quibus vivere bibere est, which translates as "Blessed are the Spaniards, whom living is drinking."
We headed out the door on foot to meet friends at a brand new bar called Espiritu Chupitos, (Spirits and shots). As we're walking down Calle Iturrama, we hear yelling across the street and see a young man in his 20's with an awful mullet in a mad sprint. Being that they were about 30, 40 yards away and yelling in Spanish my reactions to the situation were delayed. I didnt realize until after 2 or 3 seconds that the sprinter was carrying an elderly women's purse and he was being chased by a little round man who was probably her husband. The whole thing happened in about 5 seconds and awful mullet man raced into the backseat of a little black hatchback waiting readily on the corner; he jumped in, they peeled out.
That was my one chance to tackle the POS with a mullet and I missed it. Grr. After settling on the notion that there really was nothing we could have done, we continued.
Espiritu chupitos was on its second day of operation. Walking through the front door, 12 feet tall of stainless steel about 2 inches thick, it looked identical to that of a refrigerator door at a meat packing plant, I did not know what to expect. Long but not deep the bar was glowing from people's white clothing illuminated by black lights everywhere. There had to be at least 6 bar tenders working the rush at the bar. Behind the bar on a chalkboard that stretched the entire length of the bar was the menu of chupitos. There were hundreds of options. Magico, Bob Marley, Fruit Cake, Flame thrower, and my favorite, Full Metal Jacket, almost every single one included flames, sparklers, a blow torch or an act of some sort. All of the shots required creativity, a steady hand, and no fear of flames. The Full Metal Jacket entailed 2 shot takers; the bar tender would put on a military officers hat and jacket and put ballistic helmets on the heads of the drinkers. The "officer" stood on the bar and screamed lines in spanish from full metal jacket at them, gave them the shots, covered their mouths with a napkin, then spun their heads around violently. For its second day of being open, I was impressed. Oh, and don't bother ordering a beer here, gin tonic please.
My companeros(roommates), are moving in today. One is Pablo, a masters student of biomed engineering, and the other is not here yet. It is quite a full house because I moved in early. The original 2 renters put the rooms on the market starting Oct 1 because they are not leaving until the 4th and 5th of Sept. I needed a place now and they agreed to accommodate me. The only trade off is I have to deal with rubbing elbows until they leave at the end of this week, a little awkward, but hey this is life, and this will be my home.
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