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 ;-)
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