Soaking It All In

First off, I'm finally feeling better! I started sleeping out on the couch and I have felt better since, so my theory may be correct. I don't want to test it in my last few days. Yay!

To continue last Thursday's entry 7/22, I met up with Kristin at the Prado and made it through one of the two main floors in 2 hours. It was mostly Renaissance era paintings, so I saw a few famous ones that were nice surprises. Saw some Bosch, Van der Weyden, Goya. Afterward, I met up with people for our Spanish friend Pablo's send-off at a restaurant called Jardin de Secretos. I had a couscous dish that had some interesting spices. We went out for beers and tapas afterward, I had my first cerveza con limon which was tasty.


Cool sidestory that happened earlier this week: For class, we had to interview Spaniards about the Spanish Civil War. I talked to a guy in the cafeteria at school. He explained how the country was filled with persecution and hunger. He admired his father through everything. People would be taken from their homes and murdered/shot because of the hostility between sides. He got choked up a few times during our conversation and said he could talk about it all so much more. A few days later, I saw him again and he approached me with a gift wrapped in Christmas paper. It is a novel written by his brother I believe. He asked if I could understand it and I said it'd be great practice! It seems to be a mystery/thriller. Very cool connection.


Friday 7/23:

I gave a presentation in my conversation class about the film "Jamon, Jamon" which went a lot better than my first one. I had some more Kristin time and we met up at a Starbucks (got some American feeling in there) and had a date.

We went to an Egyptian temple that is 2200 years old. There was flooding going on the in region of Egypt and they shipped pieces of the temple to other countries. It was very small, but well conserved with engravings.

Saturday 7/24:

Our night bus for Barcelona left at 1:00am on Saturday morning! Alex, Kyle, Brad (Alex's buddy) and guy from Brad's program went on the trip. I was not only the oldest, but the only girl which naturally made me feel like a mom. I definitely took care of them but they were sweet! The busride was 8 hours so we arrived around 9:00am in Barcelona. Kyle was my seat buddy, I slept a little, but not too much. It was good to have some alone time and chill with my Ipod. We found the hostel after navigating their metro system. We stayed at Nest Hostels-Yellow which was nice: ac, gameroom, kitchen, lounge, terrace, showers, towels, sheets. A guy named Reese was in the room with us, sweet guy who was traveling around Europe. Two gals Shana and Stacey from Brad's program tagged along and managed to get a room in the hostel. We were able to leave our luggage in a storage room since we couldn't check in.

We went by their futbol stadium, found Sagrada Familia which was a really unique church that was unfortunately under construction. Interesting sculptures and forms on the outside of it. We had a strange place for lunch that did the job but wasn't too great. We climbed a ridiculous hill to make it up to Park Guell, but were rewarded with amazing views of the city. We found the famous terrace. So beautiful. There were tons of sculptures and their famous mosaic moderist art with the seats and the buildings everywhere. I managed to get the famous picture in front of the seats.

We made our way back to the hostel for check-in and headed to the beach! The water was very blue, clean sand, sailboats. There were rocks out in the water that we swam to, sharp edges that busted open Alex's foot. The boys brought me a beer (open liquor/drinking laws everywhere) which was nice. There were a lot of topless women at the beach even though it wasn't the official topless beach. Spain approaches that a lot differently. It was more normal than I thought since I really didn't know anyone who was doing it. One of those things that'd be strange with a group of friends. We only stayed for a few hours on Saturday, made our way back to the hostel and showered. We found a cheap, but nice little Mexican restaurant around the corner from the hostel. We got some stuff at the store for calimochos before going out since we didn't want to spend too much on drinks. There weren't too many bars where we were looking around Las Ramblas, but we eventually found a nice place where we got free shots with mojitos. Kyle may or may not have taken one of the shotglasses. I got a brownie to finish off the night as well. We made it back to the hostel around 4:30am all pretty tired, but satisfied with the end of our night.

Sunday 7/25:

I made sure that the boys were up on time to get ready and check out by noon. There wasn't free breakfast like we thought, but I had gotten some granola bars the night before to tide us over. There was a fruit and bread store open, where I got some awesome nectarines, a baguette, and some small chocolate pastries. We headed back to the beach and got a good spot. Went swimming a little but mostly just relaxed and soaked in my version of heaven. The guys brought me some lunch after they got Alex's foot cleaned up again. I ended up getting a good sunburn, but it was worth it. Haven't really gotten a lot of sun in the last two years! Brad and his crew left around 3:00pm to catch their train but my boys and I didn't have to leave until midnight.

We headed back to the hostel and showered, got our stuff and checked out Casa Mila, a famous curved building near las Ramblas. We had a good dinner of paella and pizza before heading to the bus station early. The buses were confusing and parking in the wrong places, but we managed to find it. It was more uncomfortable than the first bus, so I really didn't sleep at all.

Monday 7/26:

Our bus returned around 7:30am so Alex and I made our way to the university. Oh yeah. I was alright on energy levels until halfway through my first class, but my biggest pain was the sunburn on my legs. My conversation teacher called in sick so I didn't have my second class! So the two days where I stayed up all night I didn't have full/normal class day. I slept from 1pm-7pm to catch up from 2 nightbuses in one weekend. Brad, Alex, Kyle, and Maria (Kyle's Spanish friend who is adorable and wonderful) came over and made tortilla espanola, salad, and pasta. We watched silly youtube videos and talked about the differences in Spanish culture with Maria. She said that their first priority with life here is to be happy and content, to take things as they come. They don't really make to-do lists here and do things based on priority/urgency. I hope I can take some of that mentality back home and not be so hung up on being busy and unavailable because of a tight schedule.

I'll write about today next time since I'm going out later for a dinner with people since we only have a few days left!

Me Siento Bendecida

I've been able to take a step back over the last few days to have some "alone" time, not necessarily being by myself because that rarely happens here, but even some time not doing homework or running around the city with the apartment clan (I may propose to think of an official name for us. I'm sure we can come up with something, we're pretty hysterical). Along with that, it's an incredible thing that I didn't know these people 3 weeks ago. I feel like they have been a part of my life for years. Living with someone and having a good connection with them from the start has significant results. When you have people in your life every single day for at least 6 hours going to school, making meals, riding the metro, quoting South Park, watching Spanish movies, and of course talking in Spanish slang or in a Borat accent, you realize how great people can be. When living in a different country, everything is new at some point and you need people around you who can say "tranquilo" or help you laugh off your potentially embarrassing situations. You need people to make sure you don't take life too seriously. I can definitely say I have that here.

Sunday 7/18:

Alex and I were victorious and didn't sleep through our alarms and went to something called Rastro, a market on Sunday mornings off of the La Latina metro stop. Vendors line the streets with booths, selling everything you can imagine: clothes, jewelry, scarves, books, placemats, antiques, etc. And all of it is really inexpensive! So I got most of my souvenirs knocked out. I got a dress for myself (only 4 euros!) as well as a scarf to add to my collection of foreign country scarves that I have at home from friends and roommates. We walked into a restaurant to get some water and the countertop was covered in giant bowls of all kinds of olives. I ran into a guy there whho I met during my layover in Atlanta. His group was going to study in Segovia for the month (where I went on Saturday) and I randomly ran into him in Madrid. So crazy. He told us some great stuff about Barcelona, which sold me into going with the boys this weekend! So at first when I didn't think I would make it over there, I decided to miss one of the field trips to go. I've heard it's beautiful and one of the great things to see in Spain. You'll hear about that early next week! Later on during the day I worked on a short dialogue project with a gal from class, then got Kebabs from down the street for dinner with Katie and Alex.

Monday 7/19:

Normal class day. I worked on another little project after class, then went to the Reina Sofia museum off of the Atocha metro stop (where my hotel was during the first few days). The museum has a lot of surrealist and cubist work from Dali, Picasso, and Marco. The time period of the Spanish Civil War was great, with works of Picasso mostly but other artists demonstrating how dark the world was.

After some smaller studies of Picasso and some prints of propoganda during that time, you turn the corner and find Guernica (above) by Picasso in a room by itself, covering a wall. You can take photos from a certain distance, but I chose to simply walk into the room and stand there for about 5-10 minutes looking at it. As you can tell, there is a lot going on. I can now believe that it's an accurate portrayal of the war's effects on the people after learning more about it. Absolutely incredible, I've always wanted to see that one.

We booked our hostel and night bus tickets for Barcelona later on! We'll head out at 1am Friday night/Saturday morning and return Monday morning.

Tuesday 7/20:

Some other random observations of Spain:

-Traffic is more willing to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalks. There aren't as many cars here since the public transportation is great. Jorge (teacher) said that families have one car at most, if they have one. In his family, "su mujer" drives the car with their little girl and he takes the metro. The first time Katie heard him call his wife "my woman," she thought he was sexist but that's a proper term here for wife :-)

-I've been able to watch some TV, mostly when I'm eating lunch after school. I usually have on the news. I don't miss American news at all! They're informative here with stuff going on all around Spain and the world. I really haven't seen any entertainment news and if so, it has been on page 8 of the paper or in a small scrolling tagline at the bottom of the screen.

-People don't really exercise or run in public here. There are tons of infomercials for exercise equipment so maybe they do it in their houses?

-"Abejas Asesinas" was on TV the other day. Killer Bees.

-"Ruleta de la Fortuna" is more fun here than in the states...Wheel of Fortune! The audience gets more into it, singing songs when they spin the wheel, do the wave between each solved puzzle. It's good vocab and spelling practice for us.

-Reading articles and straightforward things has become easier. I read a headline on the TV yesterday and had to do a double take because I thought it was in English!

Tuesday we had our midterm. I wasn't there mentally for awhile since my nose and throat freaked out again the night before, but it was a fair test. I ended up not doing as well as I would have liked which is frustrating, but I'll have opportunities with a project and the final to make up points. After our exam, Jorge gave us the pronunciation lecture, talking about certain letters and situations in Spanish. At one point, he switched from explaining (in Spanish) how English has different sounds for their vowels, then proceeding to say "water" in a very American accent and then in a very British accent. Hilarious.

I managed to get a pill from the pharmacy for decongestion, painkiller, cold symptom relief. I was proud of myself for being able to communicate everything in Spanish and to ask questions. I'm pretty much tired of being sick, but I've still managed to have a good time. I think it's God's way of telling me that life must and can go on even when you're sick. In reality, besides sleeping less, I've only missed out on drinking more which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It would be nice to just have a glass of wine or a mojito, but I've still managed to have plenty of fun! Since we all had our test on Tuesday, pretty much everyone in USAC went out together. We all started out at good ol' Tigre, then split up into smaller groups hitting up different places.

Wednesday 7/21:

Normal day of class. Took a nap and worked on homework all evening. We're reading a novel for class called El Cartero de Neruda that is historical fiction around Pablo Neruda and the election of Allende in Chile. I don't know about 6 words on each page, so I take the time to look them up so I can read it more effectively. Made myself some dinner using a baguette and ham, salami, and chorizo.

I'm heading to the Prado here soon but I'll write about that after I go at some point. It's hard to believe that I'll be leaving Spain in a week to head to Germany and that I'll be home in about 2 weeks!

Hasta luego,

Bri-como el queso ;-)

Halfway Done

It's hard to believe that I've already been here for over 2 weeks! However, it's starting to slow down now that I've realized that. I had a good week that was more normal than not! Some differences here compared to the US that I have noticed:

-Portion sizes at restaurants are reasonable enough that no one ever takes boxes home. It'd probably be strange to ask since I've never seen it.
-Ice is rare in drinks
-Spongebob Squarepants=Bob Esponja Pantalones
-It takes 5 escalators to get from the Metro train up to the street level at my apartment's stop
-There are never paper towels in the bathrooms, only air dryers
-There are not clothes dryers in many places, everyone hangs their clothes out of the window

Tuesday (7/13) was pretty normal, went to class and did homework. Fun Fact: Tuesday the 13th is Spain's unlucky day, just like Friday the 13th is unlucky in the US. Made some dinner with groceries. Wednesday (7/14) was good. I had my conversation class midterm today which was really nervewrecking, I'm really intimidated by the teacher of that class. It was an interview where she asked me to describe or explain things that we have discussed in class.

We went to Palacio Real de Madrid that had stuff from Carlos III and Felipe II. We toured the palace rooms that were all ornate with different colors and decor styles: blue dining room, Oriental Smoking Room, wood room, porcelin room, etc. The gardens were sculpted all around the palace. A few rooms had pieces of silverware and crystal that was used back then. There was an armory display that held the armor and weapons of Carlos and Felipe. They had stuff for the horses and small armor for kids so they could practice and take pride in their abilities to walk in such heavy pieces. Kristin has been here since session one and we both love art and history, so we took more time looking around than the other people in the group. We definitely enjoyed ourselves and soaked it all in. There was a giant courtyard in the middle of the palace that had gold lamps and a cathedral is next door, we'll visit there another day.

Later that night, Alex, Vanessa, and some of Alex's friends in another program met up in Sol for cheap tapas and beer. 1 euro for beers and little sandwiches, great deal!

Thursday 7/15 was a normal class day. I gave a presentation in my conversation class about Pamplona which was also nervewrecking. That night I went to an apartment of some girls from session one and went out with all of them. It was good to talk with some of the people who I have only seen in class! We went to a nice club called Pacha and I ended up not sleeping. Good night though, no regrets with staying out!

Friday 7/16 Made it to class to find that we had Movie Day in my 2hr grammar class. I could not have loved my professor more at that moment. We watched a musical/comedy called "The Other Side of the Bed." Needless to say, I slept all afternoon. We went out and got some Sushi with a group, then came back and watched "Jamon Jamon," a strange Spanish film that was Penelope Cruz's start as an actress. The tagline: A film where women eat men and men eat ham.

Today 7/17: We had our field trip to Segovia. This morning we woke up to find that we had no water, so I couldn't take a shower, brush my teeth, or wash my face. So I ended up taking my bathroom stuff to school where we would meet the bus by 8:50am, only to find that the university buildings didn't open until 9:00am. So I bought a bottle of water from the busdriver and washed my face right outside the bus and dried off with a t-shirt I brought. It could have been worse, at least it wasn't a school day.

The bus ride was about an hour and a half. There was a lot of history with the city and the castle that we visited. I got tons of pictures! You've probably seen shorter beds from older sites. The people in the Renaissance were superstitious and believed that if they were to sleep completely laying down, they would be too similar to the dead and were afraid that they wouldn't wake up in the morning if they did so. Therefore, they would sleep almost sitting with a bunch of pillows to avoid being completely flat, so the beds didn't need to be very long. We went up the tower to the very top of the castle, 152 steps in a narrow spiral stone staircase.

After the castle, we walked around their Plaza Mayor and looked in the shops, went down the streets. I got a pastry since I didn't eat breakfast in the madness of the lack of water fiasco. We ate at a nice restaurant where we had roast suckling pig (part of Segovia's culture) and trout. The pig comes out flat on a big serving dish with the head still intact. The waiter had one of our people go up and repeat a saying after him. She then cut and pounded the pig with the edge of the plate, then finished by dropping the plate on the floor. It was really tasty. Dessert was Torta de Poche, a great cake/custard dessert. We were definitely in a food coma. I got tons of pictures of the food there too! We finished the trip by visiting their famous Roman aqueduct. We visited the memorial part of it where it is the tallest. She told us a great story about a Virgin Mary statue in the middle of it. Very cool culture.

The streets and images in Segovia were more of the type of thing I expected to find in Spain. Madrid is more of a big city, so it was good to see a smaller province with old buildings that were different, more charming and simple. Cobblestone streets, orange stones and brick.

We're taking it easy this evening after being out all day in the sun. We have another Spanish movie to watch, hopefully we have more success with it! Hasta luego!

La Mejor Fin De Semana

I know it's been a week but things were a whirlwind right after they started settling down! We just had a crazy weekend here of bulls and campeones (champions)! In case you are wondering, when I get home, I'll post pictures so you can see what I was talking about! I don't have a way to do so here.

Wednesday 7/7:

Normal day with class and an extra-long siesta, which cut into our abilities to be productive before heading out for the Germany vs. Spain futbol game that evening. We found a bar a metro station over with some other USAC people. It turned out to be pretty nice despite the shady appearance with neon lights on the outside. We had nice seats so I was able to actually watch the game instead of going off reactions of the crowd. Talked to some locals while getting my drink, which was funny. People are a lot more friendly than I thought. I've learned that in general, people here want to practice their english as much as we want to practice Spanish, so a lot of patience is involved both ways. Unfortunately I started feeling sick on Wednesday, so I stuck to just one mojito. They played great defense, could be better with shooting. It was great to witness another Spain victory, but this time sending them to the final game! The city was going crazy yet again. People running in the streets, horns heard for miles, flags, songs.

We headed to another bar down the street that had some tapas and drinks. We got free bufandas (scarves) from the bartender that have faces of the soccer players on it. Kyle got an amazing chocolate pastry that was only 1 euro, so naturally he got another one and we all shared.

Thursday 7/8:

Rob arrived in Madrid in the afternoon so I hopped on the metro soon after class to pick him up. It was great to see him again in 3D rather than on a Skype call! His flight was delayed almost an hour so I got some homework done as I waited. We came back and chilled out for a bit, then went out to Tigre with the apartment buddies so he could get some tapas and hang out. I wasn't feeling to well, so I scheduled an appt for the doctor for Friday morning.

Friday 7/9:

I found the doctor alright in the morning. It looked like an apartment building with a doorbell that let me in to the waiting room. The doctor didn't speak as well of english as everyone claimed, but we communicated well. It felt like I had a sinus infection, but it turned out I just had a cold type thing that Susan (USAC) had, which was worse because I would just have to ride it out. He gave me some antihistamines for my throat, but I didn't really feel better until today.

We made our train for Pamplona (just barely) out of the Atocha Renfe station. It was a 3hr train ride, which was cool because I got to see some of the countryside on the way. A lot of flat, brown land but also some mountains in the distance. My favorites were the fields of sunflowers. We sat across from a dad and daughter who was finishing grad school. He had stacks of information on Running of the Bulls, maps of the course and a schedule of festivities.

We arrived in Pamplona in the evening where the weather was a lot cooler (thank God). We didn't have a good map, so we had some trouble deciding how to get to where we needed to go. We eventually got on the right bus and with some help from a friend in Madrid through texting, found the succession of streets that led to our hostel, which ended up being a little isolated in a strange location. It was nice though, had a bar-restaurant on the bottom floor. Double bed, bathroom, AC, TV, good water, near a little town called Burlada that had stores and restaurants. We went out and got stuff for breakfast and snacking during the day, got our white shirts and pants and our red scarves and belts, picked up some pizza from PizzaMovil on the way back (made things easy, got a good deal) and relaxed to prepare for an early morning with the bulls.

Saturday 7/10:

For a little historical context and backgroud: The Running of the Bulls takes place for a week in July every year as a part of the Festival of Saint Fermin (Festival de San Fermin), which commemorates the son of the first Christian Roman general. Fermin was martyred for professing his faith. There are a lot of theories for the white clothes and red scarf and belt, but the main one I have heard is that the white is for the purity and faith of fermin, while the red relates to the bulls and butchering. The bull run is called "El Encierro" which means "the enclosed." There are 6 bulls and 6 steers that are released, the tame steers used to contain the young bulls because if a bull is left alone, they are more dangerous. They usually run the half mile course in a few minutes, starting right at 8am every morning of the festival. They finish in the Plaza del Toros, the stadium where the bullfighting happens later in the evening. The photo above is the site of their opening and closing ceremony.

We woke up around 5:45am to catch a bus at 6:30am to the city. Busrides here are usually 1,20 euros so it's pretty cheap. After getting into our white and red getup and Rob in his running shoes, we had some baguette, bananas, and granola bars for breakfast. We made our way along the course among the hoards of people. The streets were slick from water and all types of alcohol. People were climbing on statues, signs, and walls while others were passed out in the grass as a result of the previous night. There were barracades along the course that are taken down soon after the running to open up during the day's festivities. Rob snuck into the course through a barracade after we set up a meeting spot. I began my search for a good spot to watch, eventually finding a place to stand on a metal railing. I found a side street next to a sweet family with a girl from Spain who was probably in her early teens. It was her first time there too! A little before 8, her mom helped us up onto the railing. 2 shots fired out at 8:00am on the dot, releasing the bulls! I could see the runners on the street below, but was at too steep of an angle to see the bulls go by. It was so fast anyway, said to be at about 15 mph. Rob made it out alive, has a scratch from when he was pushed into the barracade by people yelling "Corre! Corre!" He came extremely close to the bulls, enough to see that there are covers on the tips of the horns, lessening the possibility of true goring. He started near the start of the course and ran all the way into the stadium where much to everyone's surprise, they shut the gates and release the bulls back into the crowd of runners. When he found me at our meeting spot, the first thing he said was "Sorry, I was trapped in a coloseum with a bunch of angry bulls!"

After sleeping most of the day and Rob waking up to find his entire body sore from recovering after the adrenaline rush, we went back into the city to enjoy the festivities. The bullfight was really expensive, so we opted out of that. We walked the course of the bull run, stopped in some souvenir shops, got some sandwiches and churros con chocolate. We stumbled upon the beginning of the course when they were putting the steers back, so I was able to see some bulls in real life! I didn't need to run, I was satisfied with seeing them about 50 feet away. We saw the fireworks show, found the cafe that Hemingway was in as he fell in love with Spain (shoutout to Kgirl!) and headed back to the hotel around 2am.

Sunday 7/11:

Since I wasn't feeling to well by Sunday, we decided to not see the running again on Sunday morning and gave ourselves plenty of time to make it back to the train station. We got back to Madrid around 3pm, had our siesta then headed out to the madness for the game with Alex and Kyle (apartment buddies) since the girls were still on their way back from a weekend trip to Bilboa (Basque country, I was sad to miss that). Grabbed some food, headed down to the metro station. We got to the top of the stairs and there were people EVERYWHERE an hour and a half before the game even started. We were watching near the Bank. They had a few big screens set up in the streets to show the game at the stadium and here.

We managed to find a spot on the street, where we were sprayed down by hoses every 10 minutes for the 30-45mins before the game started. I was drenched, but at least I wasn't hot. It was exhausting, but well worth the standing for 3 hours. After the goal, it was chaos and partying until the next morning when things had to be functional again. Songs, flags, jumping, drink stands on the sides of the street, fireworks being set off uncomfortably close, people dancing on trucks, climbing on trees, running in the streets, cars with flags honking horns, "Yo Soy Espanol" "Campeones, Ole!" In the excitement, I felt pretty terrible so we made our way back to the apartment. It was great watching the footage of the celebrations in Sol, Banco de Espana, and all over the country.

Don't know if you heard about this, but there is an octopus that predicted the outcomes of the games. It started out predicting games for Germany, but they did it for the final few games of the tournament. They drop 2 identical jars with food into the tank, each having a flag of the opponents. The octopus (pulpo) chooses a jar and that one is predicted to win the game. It had a 99.9% rate of accuracy, predicting Spain to win the World Cup as well. So everyone had stuffed animal octopus or even real ones. Pretty crazy.

Monday 7/12:

Slept in since I still felt terrible. Ran some errands with Rob, got him a Spain flag to add to his collection and found a nice restaurant for some authentic Spanish food. I took him to the airport in the evening, he enjoyed his time here! There was a parade for the soccer team that some USAC people went to, but I was worn down and needed to catch up on homework since I missed class Friday and Monday because of being sick/doctor appt. Now back to the routine!

Hope you enjoyed my adventure, things will 'normalize' again :-) Hasta luego!

El Inicio de mi Aventura

Don't worry, I won't write my blogs in Spanish. The first thing I'll say about my journey to Spain is that it's not as difficult as I thought it would be on all levels. Going to Paris really helped, but even traveling by myself has led to more confidence rather than meltdowns. I understand Spanish better than I thought, in writing and during conversations with the locals and my teachers. Overall, everything seems natural, from the atmosphere of the streets to the perfect fit with my roommate.

I'm sitting here in my apartment with the aroma of Tortilla Espanola (fried potatoes and eggs) made by Kyle, one of the boys who lives downstairs. Some of our first adventures with cooking Spanish food! To begin my adventure:

I started out in a hotel for the orientation, meeting the 6 other new USAC students who would be taking classes at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos during July. A group had already been here for June and we would meet them through our roommates. I took a shuttle from the airport, first waiting in the wrong place for it which gave me an opportunity to talk to a man and a woman who were calling for my shuttle. We talked in English and Spanish about how it's my first time traveling alone. The guy assured me to not be too nervous and to not cry, which I haven't done yet! The shuttle was a 3-row van and it dashed through traffic like it was a smart car. Their traffic is crazy, so many close calls. I'm surprised there aren't more wrecks.

Our USAC staff are great. Gabriela is a beautiful native of Madrid with a great spirit and sense of excitement who arranges our housing. Susan is my roommate's idol, a great lady from Boston who has lived here for 7 years and is now a citizen of Spain. She handles health and safety issues. Alvarro is from San Sebastian and handles our academics. They did our orientation on Friday 7/2 and we had appointments with Alvarro to determine classes. Since I was the only one to sign up for Advanced Spanish I, I had the choice to do poetry or Advanced Spanish II, which would be with people above my level. I went with the Advanced II and love it. I'm also taking Advanced Conversation where we simply discuss topics each day. Our first day of classes was yesterday and I wasn't too nervous. I understand everything that they say, even though one of them speaks really quickly. The Madrid accent and choice of words hasn't been too problematic, it's pretty straightforward.

I moved into my apartment on Friday afternoon after orientation. Alex lives downstairs with Kyle. Alex is in session II, Kyle was in session I but is now teaching privately and living here still. Alex and I are both new, so we were shown to the building together by 2 Madrid girls, Maria and Deborah. They were about our age, they showed us the bank and close grocery stores. I understood most of what Maria said in Spanish, but was exhausted after a whole day of orientation and then 2 hours of conversation in Spanish. It's a good size. 2 bedrooms, bathroom with a standing shower, kitchen with the works, living area, washer for clothes. The kitchen uses natural gas so we have to turn the switch to light the stove by hand. No air conditioning even though it's hot, but keeping the windows open creates a nice breeze most of the time. It's hot here, but less humid so the shade is reasonable. A lot of the west coast people from the states are suffering, but we're all adjusting.

Katie, my incredible roommate, came back from holiday in between sessions on Saturday night. We are the same person. She is from Chicago and goes to Loyola. Her life has been changed by being here, she wants to move back and study anything to figure out how to be Susan essentially. We have laughed a ton, with each new thing revealed being the same since we understand each other so well.

The layout of the day here is very different, but I'm starting to like it. Class 9am-12:15pm (they use military time so that's an adjustment), Lunch 3pm-5pm, Siesta (official naptime/rest of the country where some family-owned shops close down for a few hours) happens anywhere from 4pm-8pm, Dinner 10pm-12am. People don't usually go out until midnight. Since the metro closes at 1:30am and opens again at 6am, most people stay out until then on weekends. The first Friday night, I'll admit that I got home at 5am, so it's possible to just wait for the metro. Otherwise, they have a nightbus route that runs during that time so you can get around the city at any hour, hence the name "The City that Never Sleeps."

For people who don't like ham very much, you won't like much of their food. There are other choices, but pretty much every meal entree includes pork of some kind. One of the popular restuarants is Museo de Jamon which has a meat shop but also meal options where you can get sandwiches, coffee, etc. I have confirmed that Wool Growers, the Basque restaurant in Bakersfield, is truly authentic because a steak that I had over the weekend had the same feel and taste as the ox tail they serve, including the same kind of fries. The food is hit or miss, but overall it's been great, tapas have been an adventure themselves. In the apartment, we've had the opportunity to shop for basics like cereal, but also mix in things where we can experiment like Kyle is right now. Last night, us girls made some octopus (not as successful), some Patatas Gravas, y some tapas that consisted of pears and brie cheese. We've had some tinto veranos (red wine and fresca) and calimochos (red wine and coca-cola). As mentioned before, Kyle is making food for us now while we have the futbol game on. Some calimochos are on the horizon.

Speaking of futbol, I have identified the moment when I fell in love with Spain. Last Saturday, I went with a few of the new USAC people to the futbol stadium where they had big screens set up to show the game vs. Paraguay. Thousands of people were starting to flood in a few hours before. They had 5 songs that everyone knew the words to, red and yellow everywhere, eruptions of sound everytime the ball got close to the net and fireworks and music for the goals (one taken back, so sad). The sense of unity and love for their country was inspiring and outrageous, with people standing in the streets and running around setting of firecrackers and singing "Yo soy Espanol."

To finish this post up, I'll update every few days. I'll be heading to Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls (commenced today) on Friday afternoon. I'll start to include more details now that you have the groundwork. FYI, we're 6 hours ahead of Ohio. I'm usually online around 8 in the evenings and then later on around 11pm-2am if you ever want to chat on google or Skype!

Hasta Luego! Con mucho amor,

Bri