Ok everyone, sorry I haven't written in almost two weeks, I know that it's kind of typical and I've probably lost some of my readership ~.^ but I wanted to wait until I had new photos to upload. I guess I'll start by talking about my classes. First of all, it takes me about an hour to commute to school. I have to cross a huge street to get to the metro station that takes either two or three lights to get across (the first picture above). I was right and my classes are really interesting. I have the same professor for my language class as I have for my coloquial Spanish class and she's great. She's very enthusiastic and very helpful on a lot of the little stuff. Both classes have so far been very helpful-I'm already using a lot of the stuff we're learning in coloquial and the stuff we're learning in language is really easy to apply to everyday conversation. According to most of the Spaniards I know, I'm really improving in my speaking ability, but I don't really notice it-in fact, to me it feels like the opposite. My other class, the Spanish theater class, is pretty challenging because right now we're reading the Spanish equivalent of Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, which is written entirely in verse and old Spanish (from the Siglo de Oro, golden century). Its pretty hard to read, but the class illuminates it so much. Its taught by this short old man who wears a lot of black and wire-framed glasses, exactly as you'd expect. He's a lot of fun and gets really into what we're reading.
Last week was fairly quiet. I was fighting that cough for the whole week, and towards the end it evolved into a cold too, but I'm mostly healthy now. On Friday night, I went over to Pepa (the monitora)'s house to watch La princesa prometida or The Princess Bride with some girls from the program and some of Pepa's friends. I must say I enjoyed the movie immensely and I thought it was great to see in Spanish. Afterwards, we went out to a couple of clubs playing American rock music-the first obscure music from the sixties and the second a more ecclectic collection of American music. I had to leave fairly early because the next day I started work at Biblioketa, and it was great! I really enjoy working there and I think it's going to help expand my horizons in terms of children's lit. I was able to make some helpful recommendations and worked in both Spanish and English, which was nice. Saturday night was "La Noche en Blanco," a coloquial expression meaning "The night without sleep." It was amazing because there were as many people out on the streets at 2am as there usually are at 2pm. It was a special event where most of the museums and other cultural centers were open until the wee hours of the morning. I really wish I had brough my camera, but I didn't so the above image is stolen from Kim's Facebook album. The whole thing was pretty amazing and I suggest you check out the link above for more info about everything that was going on. I didn't get to do too much though because all of the lines were really long, but I did see a contemporary photography exhibit and a lot of the street art. It was a quite the experience, I must admit. On Sunday, I went with a group of people to see the Cuban National Ballet company perform Swan Lake and it was absolutely gorgeous. The dancing and the costumes were both first rate. I thought the woman who played Odette/Odile did a wonderful job and the prince was rather dashing.

This week hasn't been too busy-I spent a lot of it fighting off that cold I mentioned and going to class of course. On Tuesday, though, Lan and I went to the the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, a beautiful museum filled with art from the middle ages on. My favorite was the room with 19th century American paintings-they made me kind of homesick for the changing colors of fall. After that, we walked all the way from there back to my house so I could give her a book and show her my room (above, I know, ITS SO CLEAN!). We then went to observe a dance class because I'm thinking about taking some kind of dance while I'm here (and I think I've decided on salsa to compliment the flamenco I'll be learning). Other than that, I really haven't done much so far this week. Tomorrow, I'm going to try to sign up for art classes-probably drawing although I was originally thinking painting because if you can draw it makes it easier to paint, don't you think? The picture below are the family I'm living with. None of them like to have their pictures taken and Tano was especially reluctant because he didn't really get to sleep last night because of a big deal he was working on. Tano (the Dad)Pepa (the Mom) Isabel (age 18)Sebastian (age 15)Elisa (age 13)

Bueno, chicos. Un abrazo muy fuerte!!

Hello all, (note, I have made some minor changes to the first paragraph since I first posted this entry and added wikipedia links to some of the references I make)
Sorry for not writing in a week but there really hasn't been all that much to write about. This week was mostly filled with orientation and the like-nothing too exciting except that we took our language placement tests and more or less chose our classes (with some wiggle room). I'm in Lengua Superior A, which unfortunately meets on Mondays and Wednesdays (there was another class I really wanted to take then. I'm also planning on taking Spanish Theater and Colloquial Spanish in the hopes that I'll understand what people are saying on the streets more. Its also supposed to teach you the "language of youth." I'll also be taking a few smaller courses that don't meet as often. Tuesday I had a interview with Gema, a woman who owns the second best children's book store I've ever seen. It has books in English, French, and Spanish from birth to 12+. It has all of my favorite authors and most of my favorite books (although I was disappointed to learn that although she had The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, she did not have The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, which I feel is a must for every book collection). I saw two movies: La Noche de los Girasoles (Wednesday night) and Volver (Friday evening). The first was not very enjoyable-very dark and kind of hard to follow (it jumped around a lot) but the cinematography was beautiful. The second was great! It starred Penelope Cruz and had a funny and interesting story. On Thursday, the group went to see a zarzuela. Zarzuela is the classic Spanish theater type. Its a cross between an operetta and Spanish music. The one we saw was called La Revoltosa. It was a little hard to follow because the singing was operetic and the dialogue had a lot of colloquial expressions, but the costumes were beautiful and the dancing was fun. I also went to the Reina Sofia, the modern art musuem here in Madrid on Friday. They have a special exhibit now called "Picasso: Tradicion y Vanguardia" which is the title of the class I wanted to take and now can't. I love going to the Reina Sofia because it not only has a fairly large collection of Picasso but it also has a great collection of Salvador Dali and Joan Miro. (I've included an image of one of his most famous paintings for those of you who are unfamiliar with his work. Its kind of fun.)
Yesterday we went to Segovia, a small town approximately an hour drive from Madrid. It was an adorable little town and a really great trip. We started by going to La Iglesia de la Vera Cruz (the church of the true cross) just outside of the city. The church is special because it is unlike most other churches built around the same time (most of them take the form of the cross). The Iglesia de la Vera Cruz takes the form of a dodecagon (12 sided figure for those of you who have forgotten geometry). There's a lot of mystery surround the church like who built it and why (there's some speculation that it was the Knights of Templar, like in the DaVinci Code, but they really just have no idea).
After that, we went back to the center of the city and walked over to see the Aqueduct. They told us a lot of statistics about the height and length of the aqueduct (its pretty massive) but I can't remember them. I'll just say that it's pretty impressive. Right around the base of the aqueduct they were holding a Celto-Iberic Festival to celebrate the town's heritage. According to the tour guide, these festivals are held every year and usually have different themes to them-this one talked about the methods of war in that time. We then continued our walk to go up by the amazing Gothic cathedral. Although we didn't actually go in, it was an impressive sight to see and kind of awe inspiring given it's massive size.
The coolest part of the day was by far our trip to the Segovian Alcazar, the castle that inspired Walt Disney's Cinderella's castle. It was amazing and I recommend you look at my Flickr to get the full impact of some it because I'm couldn't pick which photos I wanted to upload with this. The one I did pick is the King's Room, which was used for all sorts of official events, including feasts and the like. The people around the top are former kings (and queens!) of Castille (the region where Segovia is situated). Each person has an explanation of who s/he were and why s/he was notable. You can see part of the ceiling. The ceilings were actually one of the coolest feature of the castle because they're so intricately done and almost all of them are guilded.

After that, we went to lunch (we were starving). Every time we do a formal "lunch" they fill us up with way way too many appetizers and a lot of wine. By the time the food comes out, most people barely have room to eat it all (although some people of course do). We tried the specialty of the region, cochinillo, or suckling pig. It was kind of disturbing because some people got legs (including the feet) and others (including me) got parts with brands and hair(because the skin was left on). My piece also had a large portion of a spine, gross. After we ate the pig, we had the typical Segovian dessert which was absolutely delicious. I'm not sure what it was made of but according to some people it tasted a little like pumpkin pie and it was covered in a great Marzipan frosting. We then had some free time to walk around the city before we loaded back into the bus and headed back to Madrid.

Last night, I went out with my friends to some bars and finally to a disco, all in Chueca (the gay neighborhood). It was a lot of fun and the music was at times great and at times awful. The only part that suck was that right before I left for the night, I got burned by a cigarette. I'm not talking about my clothes, I'm talking about my skin. Fortunately it isn't a very big burn but I do have two itty-bitty blisters thanks to it. I finally went home around 4:30 after the adventure of taking the night bus (Buho). I've been fighting a cough all week and the hours spent in smokey locations really didn't help. But I did have a good time.

Os echo de menos.

Hello all,

Sorry for the freaked out entry yesterday-everything has come out ok in the end. I was woken early this morning by a phone call from the bus station saying that the girl who accidentally took my backpack had returned it and was very sorry for her error-she had been sleeping on the bus and wasn't paying attention when she got off. I just thought I'd let you all know that before I start on the more exciting entry.
Yesterday, I got back from an amazing trip to Granada in the south of Spain. For those of you who don't know, Granada was the last bastion of the Moors in Spain and finally fell in 1492. Even then, there was a strong Muslim population for years until they were finally expelled. Because of that, the Muslim influence is visable on many of the older buildings and some of the churches are really just converted Mosques. We took a bus from Madrid to Granada (because it was as fast as the train and half as expensive) and stayed in a hostel called the Funky Backpacker, which was really great. It was run by mostly foreigners (French and German people I think) and filled with people from all over the place! The best part was that it has a great terrace upstairs on the third floor where you can look out over the whole city practically (see above).
After we got settled in and had some lunch, we decided to head over and check out the cathedral and Capilla Real, where Ferdinand and Isabella were originally buried. The cathedral was great, extremely beautiful and filled with interesting things. It was all done in white and gilt with several small chapels. Unfortunately, the beauty of the main altar was marred by the scaffolding but by looking at the rest you could get an idea of the beauty. We spent quite a bit of time in the Cathedral before moving on to the Capilla Real. The Capilla Real was the resting place of Ferdinand and Isabella before they were moved to El Escorial and two other monarchs (sorry but I don't remember which) are buried their still. It has a really amazing altar with some pretty strange scenes in it-like the beheading of John the Baptist. Unfortuately, photos are not technically allowed of the Capilla Real so I don't have any but you'll just have to take my word the the intricacy of the altar piece.We spent almost the entire afternoon at the Cathedral and wondering around Granada (there was an adorable spice market right next to the cathedral and I've uploaded a photo of Margaret infront of it to flickr if you're interested). For dinner, the hostel made paella on the terrace. I must admit that for me the paella was a bit disappointing because it didn't have the same variety and the rice was undercooked despite their best efforts to the contrary. After dinner, we went on an excursion to a Flamenco show. The show was beautiful-a fair amount of variety and lots of dancers. It was a very intimate setting and at the end of the show, they tried to entice people to join the professional dancers without much avail. If I had been wearing I skirt, I probably would have joined but dressed in pants, like I was, I would have just felt awkward. After Flamenco, they took us into the Arab section of town to a beatiful observation point where we could see the entire city lit up for the night-including the Alhambra.
The next morning, we woke up early and went to the Alhambra. The Alhambra was the last hold out of the Muslims in Granada. It is situated high on a hill above the city and affords a lot of beautiful views. Like most Muslim castles/walled cities, it is focused around gardens and water so there are tons of beautiful fountains and lots of flowers everywhere. If you ever go, I highly recommend investing the 3 euros to get an audio-guide because I found it increased my interest quite a bit. It was nice to have everything explained to me. I'm not going to spend as much time as I'd like talking about the Alhambra because if I do, none of you will read this entry because it's so long, but I've included some photos and I HIGHLY recommend that you look at my flickr site for more pictures because it really was probably the most beautiful place I've ever been. Since we went so early in the morning, the weather was absolutely perfect and it was just starting to get really hot when we finished with Generalife (hen-er-al-EEF-ay), the big gardens that were where the sultan lived after the Christians took over. Generalife reminded us a little of Alice in Wonderland because of the maze of bushed you could walk through to reach the palace part. After we finished at the Alhambra, we went back to the center of town, had some lunch, returned to the hostel and took our siesta.
In the evening, Margaret and I went to the Parque de Ciencias to visit an exhibit on the Titanic. It was a really interesting exhibit based mostly around photographs, letters, and some artifacts from the ship. I won't say too much about it but the above picture is of Margaret and I in front of "The Grand Staircase." The next day, we went shopping in the morning (after getting a nice night's rest) and, when we got tired, headed to the bus station for our ride home. I've already written the entry about that but other than the missing backpack which has since been found, everything was wonderful and I highly recommend you check out Granada, and my pictures of it, at some point if you have a chance.

Para que aprendeis mas.

So I left Granada prepared to make a great blog entry where I talked about how great the trip had been (and don't worry, I promise I'll still make that one) but instead I'm going to make a stressed out entry. I'll begin by saying that I am a total idiot. On my trip to Granada, I put my passport in a small inner pocket of my backpack so that I wouldn't have to worry about it being stolen out of my purse or lost like that, never considering the possibility that the entire backpack might go missing. I stored my backpack (minus my computer) under the bus for the ride back from Granada to Madrid. I did the same thing last time without a hitch and it didn't occur to me that this time might be different. There were two places where people got off the bus: Estación del Sur and Avenida de America (in that order). My stop was the second one. When I got off the bus, I looked under the bus for my backpack and saw one that looked like mine and started to grab for it when I realized I was mistaken-it wasn't mine but one in a similar style and different color. I looked around and asked the bus driver if he had seen my backpack and he pointed me to the same one I had just dismissed as not mine. I of course started to freak out, not knowing what to do and not having planned well for this eventuality. I reported it missing and asked the station to call the other station to ask if someone else had realized that they had taken the wrong backpack by mistake-of course no one had yet. So I've left my name, number, and address with the station in the hopes that the person will realize their mistake and report it. I guess we'll find out in a few days if anyone will and I'll let you all know. I'm not sure whether I feel optimistic about it or hopeless...I can't think that someone would have intentionally left THEIR backpack and taken mine, but at the same time the backpacks are different enough that I feel they should have noticed immediately and tried to correct it. In a few days, I'm going to have to begin the process of getting a new/temporary passport and thinking about replacing everything in that bag (I've already started a list) but I really hope it won't come to that.
Deseando por el mejor.
Katy

So I'm finally going to finish the section on Santiago and start on the section about Madrid because tomorrow, two of my friends and I are going on an excursion to Granada and I'm sure my next post will be ginormous.
The first excitement that I have to talk about was our field trip to the roofs of the cathedral. We started by entering through a beautiful old castle that is connected to the cathedral (although I'm still not clear on the reason for the two buildings being connected. When we got to the great hall of the castle, there was an awesome exhibition of old books (I tried to get a good picture but I have issues using flash around works like that for fear of fading them or ruining them somehow). We then continued through the church and went up the stairs until we reached the roofs. From the roofs it seemed like we could see all of Santiago. It is possible to go on the roof tour without a special guide and I highly recommend it for anyone who happens to be in Santiago. The view is truly amazing and its pretty awesome to think about the fact that for a long time, the chruch didn't have any locked doors and the pilgrims went up their to burn their rags (and get rid of disease) at the end of their long journey.
After our journey to the roofs of the cathedral, we continued on to the Royal Hospital (I think I mentioned it before but maybe not). The Royal Hospital was built by the Catholic Monarchs to house the poor and sick pilgrims in a time where hospitals did not exist as separate institutions. The courtyard were where the healthy pilgrims could find shelter and the sick pilgrims were taken care of on the higher floors. The building was separated into two sections-the left side for men and the right side for women. The hospital also features a beautiful chapel with some amazing limestone carvings. Unfortunately due to limestone's tendancy to dissolve in water and the high levels of humidity in Santiago, some of the statues are missing pieces. The hospital has recently been converted into a 5 star-Gran Lujo (extreme luxury) hotel but still offers breakfast for the first ten pilgrims to arrive there every morning.
After we finished at the royal hospital (our visit had to be cut short because our guide really likes to talk and we still had another place to visit) we went on the the Church of San Martin, part of a monestary just across the street from the cathedral. We didn't spend much time there but we did get an idea of how beautiful the church was. The altar was done entirely in gold work, and the places where the monks sat were extremely intricately carved. If we had had more time there, I'm sure I'd have more to say about it but all I can really tell you is that it was beautiful.

On Saturday, we had our final exams which were much less difficult than you might imagine; we were told to pick a topic from each class and write no more than single double-sided sheet on it. I was very happy with the way my exams turned out and think I did pretty well on them (I still haven't seen any results). That evening, we went out for dinner at this pretty cool restaurant that gave us way too much to eat. After desert, we tried a typical drink in Galicia-Queimada. I've included a link to the Wikipedia article on it because although it really is very interesting I don't think I can relate it very well and I don't have any pictures of it. After that, we went out for Karaoke but the place we wanted to go was too full so we went dancing instead.

We left Santiago early the next morning. I've already written an entry about my arrival here in Madrid so I won't repeat any of that. Yesterday we went to the campus where we'll be studying for some initial orientation stuff. The day was much too long, without really accomplishing much. It was way to hot to wander around; I heard from someone today that it reached 39 degrees celsius (102 fahrenheit). Today was a free day, which I'm using to take care of some errands and meet up with the girls I'll be travelling with tomorrow. I'll post again when I return from Granada.

Que os duermais bien.

This is going to be another quick post just to let everyone know that I have arrived safely in Madrid and am settling nicely with my Spanish family. Their house is as awesome as I remember it being and I’m all done unpacking. I will definitely take pictures of everyone so that those who haven’t seen the family will be able to. Elisa is still at the beach as of now but she arrives tonight. Everyone seems to like their presents. Isabel was EXTATIC that we remembered about the hot fudge and was happy with the cute purse we game her. Pepa wore her bracelet immediately because it matched her outfit PERFECTLY! It is of course harder to tell the reaction of the boys but Sebastián did comment on the CD being a good one, and recognised the Cubs logo. They have complimented me on my Spanish a few times, but we’ll see over the next few days if their compliments are really merited. I am able to understand their superfast discussions amongst themselves, and feel that due to my level of comfort with them I'm able to speak better than with new people. When I arrived it was about lunchtime, so I had lunch with the family. We started with delicious organic tomatoes in olive oil with a little bit of salt. Then we had the main dish, which I was a little afraid of at first but turned out to be delicious: swordfish! (Aren't you all proud of me for trying something new?) I'll try to post again soon and put the last of my photos up from Santiago.

Besitos para todos.