Viva la Vida

Dont worry, my blog is not about Coldplay, nor the vegetarian restaurant in Madrid which Kristen had to write a critique for. It is about a restaurant though...well kind of. When thinking of the word "viva," and the saying "live the life" translated into Spanish, I think of Viva, the Mexican Restaurant situated at the corner of the Commons in Ithaca, NY. Viva…the place we’d go to get 2.50 margaritas for Happy Hour on Fridays. This was usually followed by buy one get one free pitchers at Moonies…but we’ll save that for another blog…or just leave it at that. Viva, what we considered the best Mexican in town, even though my freshmen year roommate from southern California told me it was nothinnggg like real Mexican.

On day 1 of my month long Spanish course at Don Quijote, I learned that the letter v is pronounced as “b” in Spanish. Viva….We had been saying it wrong this whole time! We should have been sending texts that read “Biba for margs later?” …Biba for margs later?! That sounds awffull. I know I am probably showing my language stupidity right now, not knowing that Viva isn’t pronounced Viva in its native language, but my semester’s worth of 6^th grade Spanish really wasn’t shining through for me during my 4 years of eating and drinking at Viva.

With this said, I knew that Viva la (expat) Viva was the perfect title for my blog. My blog is not only about my life in Madrid as an American, but mainly about moving on from the Mexican restaurant I would meet my friends at in our quaint little college town, keeping in touch with those people who would enjoy that margarita with me, learning the true pronunciation of the Spanish language, and traveling the globe in search of that 2.50 margarita.

In other words...I didn't want to get a real job so I moved to Madrid, and now I have more time on my hands than I ever can remember...so now you guys get to read about it.

(And yess I know I used Spanglish in my title)