Rotary Weekend

My host dad is a politician I forget this from time to time because he is always arrives home late and I never see him go to work in the morning.  Yesterday I saw one of his body gaurds on the staircase, I was waiting for the elevator and he said hola, I watched him pass a potted plant and he bent down to touch it.  I'm still not sure if he was feeling to see if it was real or searching for a bomb, you never know.  However, this weekend my host dad is driving me to the bus station because I have a seven hour bus trip from San Sebastian to Madrid.  His security meets us on the street, takes my bag, and we get into the car while they drive.  My host dad asks the gaurds about how their families are and all that, they seem to be up to date on each other.  He seems like one of the good politicians, like Harvey Dent before he was turned into Two-Face, a good guy who wants to do some good in the world.  That only makes me more worried on the car ride, I mean a kind, uncorruptable politician probably makes enemies out of dangerous people, I fully expect a James Bond style car chase followed by a firefight with amazing special effects and a hand to hand combat scene with a least one stunt that involves a man fall off a building.  I arrive at the bus station no problem.  The most interesting part of my journey with him is choosing out a sandwhich for the long bus ride.  I end up getting cheese because the others types would have taken too long.  I thought the only person in the world to eat cheese sandwhiches was my sister, they are nasty things to smell and I hate arriving home when Alison has prepared one in the microwave.  I hope mine is slightly different than the ones she makes and am plesantly surprised.  The food turns out to be great and I'm content on the bus ride over, the only problem is that I don't know what to do once I arrive in Madrid. 
The bus station is underground and when I get up to the surface I have no idea where I'm going.  The biggest city in Spain and I don't even know whether to go left or right.  I walk in a random direction in search of Rotary blazers.  I get up to an intersection on Avienda America and decide I would rather not leave the street.  Random search is not going to work, why not be practical, there is a lookout on top of the bus station so I head there to see if I recognize anything, but why would I in a place that I´ve never been and don't know what I'm looking for.  Good idea, bad timing.  On top of the building was one of the few places I would not be able to find the rotary youth exchange.  I walk down the stairs on the other side and past a line of kids my age, speaking english, and wearing blue sports coats.  It feels funny to speak English at a normal speed but I think that now I can sit back and wait for Rotary to take over.  One of my thoughts was right, all of us spent hours of the weekend waiting, Rotary never took over.
After another three hour bus ride to a local college boys and girls are separated, they go to one door and we are sent to another door on the same building.  They are both locked and we are permitted to stare awkwardly at one another until someone suggests that we check the front, it might be unlocked.  What an inovator.  In the front we are told we can not come in that way and must return to wait for Rotary.  After a few hours we are found by some actual Rotarians and are ordered across the lawn where we are assigned rooms.  All the instructions are in English because literally everyone speaks it.  Once we know are room numbers we are allowed to continue to stand around with our suitcases and make friends for another few hours.  The sun starts going down.  We continue to wait and finally a person who appears to have some sort of authority demands we all shut up and organizes us into a mob. Once formed up she starts calling names and telling people to stand behind her, once about every three people she says "You don't have a room" then continues with the list.  I am told that I, in fact, do have a room even though I have yet to see it.  Once everyone's name is called the group splits, all the girls and half the guys go to one building, and I wait in the darkness with seven other guys for directions.  No one knows where we are going so we wait some more.  Us remaining men hang our heads and try to look pitiful in an attempt to get some attention and a place to sleep because the grass is beginning to look incredibly comfortable.
We do eventually get our rooms and get some food before heading off to bed at 11 o'clock, the designated curfew that is enforced rather quickly.  We are told tomorrow we will see the city.  This is a lie.  I have not seen any of Madrid past the university and Avienda American, we are kept on campus all weekend.  There is none of the traditional pin exchange, speech making, or talent shows that usually come with these Rotary meetings.  And from the outside it would seem like the weekend was a huge disappointment, but really it was not half bad.  Youth exchangers and Rotarians are some of the nicest people you will ever meet and deep friendships were formed in the space of a few hours. Rotarians give all the usual lectures with some added information like this one man who described why fish are served with the head on.  Apparently it is much easier to tell a fish's freshness if it has a head.  I'm still not sure how this works, I have never looked at a fish head and gleaned any valuable information from it except that, if anything, the eyes are always surprised and when they realize that the worm was a trap it's too late.  And on a quick side note, why worms for fish?  Think about it.
The only part of Madrid I see is a college, an airport, a bus station and buildings from the bus window.  But I met some great people and shared more than I had in three weeks of living here, so would I go again if I had the chance to do the exact same thing?  I could call everyone I met and we could meet... anywhere but the college campus.  Find our own rooms and own meals, it might be expensive but we're in Madrid, we can do anything.  Sorry Rotary, I do love you, but somehow I felt like that there were missed oppurtunities when we were staying ten miles from the largest city in Spain and all we could do was imagine what it would be like to let our feet carry us where they may around Madrid.