I made friends!

Last night the group and I, minus Sarah, traveled to Sol in search of an interesting bar to go to. I was surprised by how Sol transformed from being a great daytime destination to an area with a bustling night life filled with people roaming the streets. Right when we got off the metro we noticed people participating in a game which required them to take off their belts and see which team could create the longest line of belts. I assisted by offering up my belt (I got it back, of course) to one of the teams. Unfortunately, I wasn't much help because the team still lost.  After the belt game we proceeded to venture aimlessly around Sol until we found a splendid little bar called Levia Activa. At least that is what I think the name of the bar is. Like other bars in Spain, they purely played songs by English speaking musicians. It wasn't until after we had been in the bar for a bit that I meet some new friends.  They consisted of a small group of girls', coincidentally one of the girl's name is Sol. I proceeded to go outside with the girls' because they wanted to smoke a cigarette. I was pleasantly surprised by how well I was able to communicate with them. They all spoke English, not perfectly, but enough to help me out when I couldn't say something in Spanish. It is interesting to think about the age gap in terms of people who speak English. It is embarrassing to say, but before I arrived in Spain I definitely assumed most people would be able to speak English. In my experience thus far I have noticed that the younger generation speaks more English than the older generation. This could be because of popular music and the fact that some schools probably offer English language courses.  To continue with my friend experience I will say that the girls' I meet were incredibly patient and willing to help me with my Spanish. They asked me questions, mainly in English, and I responded in Spanish. They probably thought I was a bit foolish for doing this, because they spoke English, but I was thrilled I was able to communicate (a little) with them in Spanish. They asked me the typical questions people discuss when they are first meeting, such as what school do you go to and what are you studying in Spain. After chatting and hanging out in the bar the group and I traveled with our new found friends to the next destination, which happened to be a dancing club. Like most night life experiences I have witnessed in Spain thus far time fly's by and before I realized it was already 6 am. We ended the night walking back together to the main center of Sol to hail a taxi. I retrieved the girls' numbers before we departed and I think I might call them sometime for another night life extravaganza!