This weekend was quite memorable. And not just because it was the weekend of the MTV Awards. Saturday I woke up quite early, considering it was the weekend. I wanted to work on homework and I did just that. Forget the fact that it took me four hours to write a simple two-page assignment. Hey, at least I wasn´t doing it at the last minute! I then went off to church, where the plan was to leave immediately after and go home (I had to be on-site at 9 am on Sunday for the awards, which meant I had to leave the house at 8,) but naturally, I did just the opposite.
First of all, I had made plans to pick up the tickets for the show at 3:45. The girl who had the tickets was going to leave them with her roommate so I could pick them up. She had already checked to see if she would be home. In an utter display of rudness and inconsiderateness, the roommate was not home at 3:45 and didn´t seem to care that I had planned my day around this. What infuriated me even more was that the girl who I worked with seemed put off that I was asking if I could meet the roommate somewhere. She asked me if I could come later. Uh, what part of 3:45 don´t you understand? I was so mad. Just plain rude. I finally picked up the tickets four hours later, after church. And I spent 45 minutes walking to their apartment and back to church to pick them up. Thankfully, I didn´t miss church.
After church, I went for tapas with some people and then the night started getting interesting. We were planning on grabbing dessert at Dunkin Coffee (Dunkin Donuts,) but they were closed. How sad. We instead walked a few more blocks over and went for gelato. Yummy! That was the normal part. We walked a few blocks to Plaza Santa Ana. We were standing around and all of the sudden my friend Amy jumped and was like OMG! She had just seen a man crawl into this manhole type thing. There are parts of the sidewalk and plazas that have a blcok of grates that cover a hole. This man had pulled one of the grates up and jumped down. A few seconds later, in a moment of just pure freakiness, he stuck his hand out of the grate. Kinda creepy. This went on for several minutes - he would come out of the hole, take his shirt off, sit for a few minutes, and then slide back down. A crowd grew and it became apparent that he was under the influence of some type of drug. Sad, actually. Then all of a sudden, we heard people yelling and screaming and someone was ushered into a taxi. Still trying to figure out which celebrity it was. We then started saying that maybe this guy was a decoy to deflect attention from this celebrity. A few minutes later, the man returned and started his routine again. By this time, more people became aware of it and some were even mocking him. Usually, police can always be found in the center of town, but this night there were nowhere. In perhaps the weirdest part of the night and most hilarious, someone tripped over this guy as he was coming out of his cave, and lost both shoes. But he picked them up and kept on walking. All of this happened over 15 minutes and it was really strange and unreal! We then decided to walk down a few more blocks to the Palace Hotel, which was where all of the celebrities were staying. This was the first time I had done some celebrity stalking and it was quite fun. We saw Pauly from Jersey Shore, but before I could see his face, I could see his hair. We stuck around for awhile and then went back to the Plaza and sat at an outdoor cafe. Finally the police came and the ambulance. Amy, whose curiosity was killing her softly by this point, went to go see what was going on with the man. In typical Spanish fashion, they weren´t doing anything, except standing in a circle, discussing what they were going to do! Not sure what happened after that. I finally made it home around 2 am.
Waking up the next morning at 7:30 was extremely hard. When I arrived at the site, I had to get my accreditation pass, which is probably the coolest thing I´ve ever owned. This pass was magic. All I had to do was wave it and I could slip past security. I wish that worked in real life. We really didn´t do anything until after lunch. We took a tour of the site to see how things would work and in the process, got to see Shakira rehearsing! She was singing Waka Waka to open up the show. It was so weird seeing her so close up. Later, we had to go back to wave these flags during the rehearsal (flags that were to be waved during the show.) I turned around and Pauly and Snooki from Jersey Shore were standing five feet behind me. I was trying to get my hands on a gift bag, not for the watch and jewelry that was inside, but for the free flight tickets. Sadly, I had no luck. Which brings me to another point - why is it that celebs are showered with free gifts that they can afford? Yes, I know it´s a marketing ploy, but still. Doesn´t seem right. Oh another note, I don´t see how anyone can be so limber at 11 am. Shakira was dancing and rehearsing and her body was moving in ways I didn´t even know one´s body could move in. I have to admit, I was star struck by it.
For the first few hours leading up to the show, I was inside a portable building, checking ID´s and giving out tickets. Things were crazy, because there were so many different types of tickets and other things to hand out - red carpet bands, stickers for people who were a part of the Shakira performance, etc, etc. The highlight of my evening was when Rafa Mendez, who is a teacher from Fama (which is just about the biggest TV show in Spain) came to my window, asking if I spoke Spanish, because they were having problems. At first I didn´t even realize who it was, even though people were yelling and taking pictures left and right. I spent a good thirty minutes helping him and other members of this group. He was really nice and shook my hand afterwards and said thanks so much. Would have asked for his autograph, except we weren´t allowed to do anything like that since we were working. Funny thing was, hundreds of pictures were taken of him and I will probably be in them! haha.
The show was amazing. Eva Longoria hosted. Shakira, Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Kings of Leon, B.O.B., Kesha, Plan B, Linkin Park all performed. And, Bon Jovi ended the show. What show isn´t great without Bon Jovi??!! I just wished that The Carters (Jay-Z and Beyonce) had made an apperance. I would have died. They were in London three days ago anyways. Madrid is just a hop, skip, and a jump away! Afterwards, we had wristbands for the afterparty. Now, I had always envisioned MTV after-parties as the place to be. I was really disappointed when we walked in. Just a whole bunch of corporate execs in suits. The only celebs we saw were Pauly and B.O.B. (which I was excited about him!) After forty minutes or so, we were over it and went home. My feet were hurting and throbbing, as were the other girls who I worked with. We shared a taxi home and I finally went to sleep around 2:30.
So, here I am, back at work, and my body is so tired. Tomorrow is another holiday, thank the Lord. However, I have tons of homework to do and I need to study for my Spanish test :( I had such a memorable weekend. Who else can say they worked with MTV and went to the after-party? And saw so many people perform?! I can! Grateful to God for all of these opportunities.
I´m off to breakfast. More tonight.
Quote of the Day: Waka Waka - Shakira
Spanish Word of the Day: La alfombra roja - the red carpet
Prayer Request of the Day: That I make it through today. Tired doesn´t even begin to describe how I feel
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