¿Cómo se dice "PDA"?

Spring break + spring quarter orientation + Semana Santa in Madrid = 3 weeks of vacation (basically), clearly I live a hard life out here ;)

The glorious weather that teased us during the end of winter quarter was interrupted by a few days of rain and cold weather, but it seems like the next few days will be much more spring-like

After returning from Cataluña last weekend, everyone began settling in to new host-families, new classes, and all that comes with living in a foreign country. Life went on more or less as usual for me but I was particularly happy to get home-cooked meals again.

Since it was also Semana Santa - the week leading up to Easter - the whole city, it seems like, was on vacation and we got a long weekend off from class. Naturally, this meant travels (Sevilla, Granada, Cuenca & Toledo) and lots of nights out on the town.

Toledo, Spain (not Ohio)

I have also come to realize that, while I have managed to adapt to quite a few things in Spain during my stay here, there are some things that I think I will never get accustomed to. Take for example, the incessant PDA that surrounds you anytime you walk in a park or any semi-secluded area after about 8pm. And by PDA, I don't mean some kissing, hand-holding, or the occasional (unnecessary but generally) harmless hugging and clinging that you see in the US.

This is normal PDA put on steroids- I'll let your imagination take care of that one for me. During one of our tours through a little romantic spot in Madrid, a girl in our group rather appallingly commented to me that she saw a man standing about 5 meters from us with his hand up a girls skirt. I semi-brushed it off and said something like "ya it's normal" and thought about adding "you'll get used to it," except for the fact that you really don't.

Another related topic that just doesn't settle well with me is the club culture. Men, women, boys/girls, dancing, and alcohol all mixing together late at night are obviously a combination that can lead to some provocative outcomes. But being a foreigner, it's also interesting to see the ways men try to spin their invitations to seem innocent in order to convince you to dance with them. After a couple times, though, you realize that no matter what they say, they will try to get very "friendly" with you.

At a club once last quarter, a guy came up to me and tried to dance with me (without asking, of course). By this point in the quarter, I was fed up with creepers at clubs so I immediately stopped dancing and gave him a dirty look, which then prompted him to ask me why I didn't want to dance with him. I said I was doing just fine dancing with my girlfriends, to which he gave me a skeptical look and said something like, "wow there's no need to think dirty, all I want to do is dance with you, nothing else."

Everything about him- the way he approached me and the fact that he responded with that choice of words when I said nothing about doing anything other than dancing - signaled to me that he had other things on this mind. Poor fool.

I love dancing and I still really enjoy going out to clubs, but now I know to be prepared with my cara de perra