Miércoles 25 octubre 2006

Wednesday I had my first cooking class and it was AWESOME! We learned how to make gazpacho (with these great little fried balls of the extra stuff that you put in like crackers), paella, and tarta de Santiago. Four people help the people cook the food while the rest of the group looks on, and then everyone eats the deliciousness. It was really, really wonderful. If anyone would like the recipes, I’m planning to translate them (if I can) and I can send them to you if you request them via comments.

Viernes 27 octubre 2006
So I mentioned in the entry where I got my haircut that I’ve lost a lot of weight (and it seems to continue to fall away from me). This meant that basically none of my pants continue to fit me (they’re pretty much all at least a size too big). I’ve been putting off buying new pants because even though I know I need them, I really just wanted to keep my old pants because I really like them. But Friday it got a little too ridiculous. I can pull off pretty much all of my old pants without undoing them at all and even my belt was in need of two new holes. So I went pants-shopping. It was traumatizing. First of all, I don’t like most of the Spanish styles of pants (because a lot of them are pre-distressed/worn and the styles just aren’t what I would normally pick). I also had to try on like eight million pairs just to figure out what size I am now (turns out I’m about a six). One of the stores I went to had different sizes for jeans and normal pants so that even further complicated things. After 2.5 hours of looking, I’d successfully found two pairs of pants that I liked and that fit me well. That means I have 3 pairs of pants that I can actually wear (I still had one pair that kind of fits because they were a little small when I came).

Sabado 28 octubre 2006
Saturday, Julia Rose Kimball (sorry, I felt like using her entire name) came to visit me from Paris. She was on vacation at the time and traveling around a lot. She arrived early Saturday morning and we began our tour of the city. We started off by visiting the Parque de Buen Retiro, which I’ve mentioned in earlier entries. The weather was unbelievably nice so the walk through the park was great. After that, we went to the Museo del Prado. I’d already seen it but Julia had been reading about some of the artists for her art history class in Paris and was excited to see them in real life. After that, we went to Sol to eat and walk around a little bit. From Sol, we did the big walk over to the Plaza Mayor and the Palace before going back and napping for a while (we’d had to wake up early and she’d been on a train all night). That night, we went out with a couple of my friends to a bar/club that’s like a block from my house. It was pretty fun, but we didn’t last all night like we planned to.

Domingo 29 octubre 2006
It was probably for the best that we didn’t make it until the morning because we woke up early to go to the Rastro instead. This experience was much more positive (and I took pictures). Afterwards, we hightailed it over to the Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida, a beautiful little church with some of the most impressive frescos I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Seriously, they were amazing. I snuck some illegal photos (I do that a lot, don’t I) to share with you guys, which I’ll put in the space next to Friday because they’ll fit there. Seriously though, amazing. (Don’t worry family; you’re definitely visiting there when you come.) After that, we went to lunch at this great little restaurant right next door to the church that had old fashioned dining and delicious food. It’s pretty much all chicken and salad with hard apple cider, but it was wonderful. You get a whole chicken, a big thing of salad, a bottle of cider, and two things of break for about 14 euro (if I remember correctly) and the atmosphere was great. I’m definitely planning to go back at some point with people. After that, we walked back to the main part of town and I showed Julia the other approach to the Palace, the exterior of Plaza Mayor (interesting because the houses are wider at the bottom than the top to support the weight of the plaza), and all of that. We chilled in Plaza Mayor for a while before we went to have some chocolate con churros for snack. We went to a place that was wonderfully typical, but the food was so filling it made me a little sick so we went home to sleep it off until it was dinner time.

Lunes 30 octubre de 2006
Monday, I unfortunately had class and was forced to abandon Julia to her own devices. After my classes were over, we met up to go to the Reina Sofia (which I’ve mentioned before). I stayed with her for a very short period of time before I had to go to my art class, where I finally finished my second drawing. I don’t think it’s quite as impressive as my first, but judge for yourselves. (Drawing picture coming soon, sorry for the delay).

Martes 31 octubre de 2006
Tuesday was Halloween. Now, the Spanish don’t celebrate Halloween like we Americans do, but they did ok. They all seemed like they had seen the same bad teen movie about the festivities and got their ideas for costumes from there. The two most popular were definitely Devil and Vampire, and you often saw groups of people dressed as the same thing. I went as a hippie (because I had the clothes) and had a great time. I made my own flower crown out of real daisies in Plaza Mayor while talking to these two wonderful old Spanish women. I gave away my remaining flowers to children I saw walking around. For the night part, I finally made the trip to El Kapital-the huge, multi-story dance club in Madrid. There was a cheesy but kind of fun haunted house and lots of dancing. Eventually, I gave up and went home to bed, but not before having a great time with my friends. We gave the night bus a shot and everything worked out ok.

Miércoles 18 octubre 2006

Wednesday I had my first exam for my Language class. I think it went alright but we still haven’t gotten it back (to my knowledge) so I don’t know for sure.

Jueves 19 octubre 2006

Thursday, I went to the Museo del Traje near Complutense, the largest Spanish university. The Museo del Traje is a museum on the history of fashion in Spain and has a lot of really interesting examples of fashion through the ages. Unfortunately, photography is not permitted in the actual gallery part of the museum so I have no photographs of the amazing collection. There is a smaller part associated with the museum that is more hands-on. You can try on things like bustles, ruffs, and corsets (all done with Velcro and not anything more…sturdy). The picture to the left is one of me trying things on. It also had some interesting information on the process of making dye, which colors come from which objects, and the differences between fabrics. I really wish I had been allowed to take pictures of the collection because that was the most interesting part but, oh well.

Viernes 20 octubre 2006

Friday I went with a group of my friends from the program for Korean food for lunch, which I had never tried before. It was really very tasty (not that I’m surprised). It’s funny to me how much more adventurous I’m being with my food here that I am when I’m at home but I supposed it’s not that strange. After lunch, I went with Aniela to get her haircut and decided to get mine cut at the same time. It was a rather terrifying experience since I wasn’t really sure what I wanted as long as it was still long but it turned out great! I actually like it more and more basically every day. It’s layered and angled towards my face and just not quite as long. It’s really much more stylish that the uniform length I had before and it brings out the natural curl in my hair. I chose this picture because it also shows how much weight I’ve lost (although the pounds continue to fall off of me).

Sabado 21 octubre 2006

Saturday I finally got to take the trip I’ve been waiting for since junior year of high school when I got sick the day we went. We went to visit Toledo, which was the first capital of Spain. The city itself is gorgeous, surrounded on three sides by the river Tajo and still walled in the old part. Toledo is especially interesting because it is a mix of the three religions of Spain-Christianity (of course), Judaism, and Islam.

We started off by going to La Sinagoga de Santa María la Blanca. (Yes, a synagogue named after the Virgin Mary). It was originally a synagogue but when all the Jews were expelled from Spain, it (along with one other synagogue) was converted into a church. There is only one Star of David in the entire monument but it conserved the separation of the women (on the top floor) from the men.

Next, we went to the Iglesia de Santo Tomé. It was a tiny church but famous because it houses El Greco’s most famous work-El entierro del Conde Orgaz. Pictures were technically against the rules but I snuck a couple anyway because the painting is so interesting that I really felt it should be seen by you guys (and because I wanted it). It reminded me of AP Euro when I wrote a paper on El Greco.

After that, we continued on to the cathedral (do you see a pattern?). The cathedral was pretty but I must admit that it really wasn’t that special-mostly like every other cathedral I’ve seen. It did have some pretty amazing frescos in the part off to the side and it is where all of the Spanish Archbishops are buried (Toledo is where they work too).

Our final stop before we were set free for lunch and a little bit of shopping was La Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz (yes, a mosque named after Jesus). Like the Synagogue we had visited earlier, when the Muslims were expelled from Spain, the mosque was converted to a church, complete with a fresco of Jesus (I never thought I’d see Jesus in a mosque but I was wrong!). Supposedly it had some beautiful gardens too but they were blocked off because they’re doing restoration work there.

After that, we had some free time to have lunch. Margaret and I went to this great Italian place with lots of atmosphere. The food was definitely worth it (we’d had to wait a while). After that, we did some quick shopping before meeting back up with the group. We continued on to a amazing viewpoint where you could really see the whole city (see the picture at the beginning of this day’s section).

After that, we went to a damascene and sword workshop. It was really cool to actually be able to see how the damascene jewelry is made, especially since we were watching a master craftsman. Unfortunately, since we were there on a Saturday we didn’t get to see any sword making but it was still really interesting. Toledo is where most of the swords from famous Hollywood movies (including but not limited to Lord of the Rings) are made so it was pretty cool to get to see a workshop like that.

Domingo 22 octubre 2006

On Sunday, I finally made it to the Rastro-the giant flea market that takes over an entire neighborhood in Madrid every Sunday. They really do sell everything there if you take the time to look. Unfortunately, it’s also a good place to get pick-pocketed because there are so many people in such a small area. I was one of the unlucky people who lost something to the mysteries of the rastro-my cell phone. Other than that though, it was a pretty interesting experience.

Lunes 23 octubre 2006

Monday, I replaced my cell phone because you really can’t be without one here in Madrid. I had hoped to be able to get my old number back but so far it just hasn’t worked out.

Martes 24 octubre 2006

Tuesday, I went to a shop that specializes in Flamenco gear to buy the shoes I needed for my class. It was really cool to see the variety of stuff-from skirt and shoes to shawls, fans, and hairpieces- that was offered there. I bought the cheapest shoes available because I’m really only using them for the class (although I might use them as regular shoes at some point in the future).

So the past three weeks are going to be posted in 3 chunks followed by the entry on my excursion to Paris taking place this afternoon. I hope you're all having an awesome time whereever you may be, I know I am!

Ok, so this post was going to be awesome and really long because for the last three weeks even though I've been neglecting the blog I've been keeping a list of everything I've been doing but my computer officially hates me and, after I closed the sticky note where I was keeping my list, it decided to freeze Firebox and not allow me to recover my post. So I'm going to do the best I can but I really have a bad feeling about this unfortunately (meaning I'm pretty sure I'm going to miss things that I wanted to talk about). Also, the entries will probably increase in length as I get closer to the present because I remember that stuff a little bit better. I haven't been posting much because I can tell that very few people read this thing and so I don't have much motivation to. If you do read this, please take the 2 seconds to comment on it, even if it’s generic, just so I have some idea of who's actually interested in what I'm doing and I can try to cater more towards what they're interested in. Also, some of the links today will be to pages in Spanish. Sorry, they’re just interesting so I put them up even though most of you don’t speak or read Spanish.

Miércoles 11 octubre 2006
So Wednesday was mostly uneventful other than the Erasmus party that night. Erasmus is the European Union exchange program and they have lots of activities like parties, trips, workshops, etc. They have both Spanish Erasmus alums and current foreign Erasmus members, and anyone else who’s a college student here. The party itself was pretty fun, good music and lots of people. We got there a little early by Spanish standards, and the place was mostly empty but by the time we left the bar was filled to brimming with people. We then had the experience of taking the Buho Metro home. I believe I’ve mentioned Buhos in the past but they’re the night buses here in Madrid. Most run out of Plaza de Cibeles but there are some that follow the metro routes, which are the ones I like best (because they’re so easy and usually not as full).

Jueves 12 octubre 2006
The next day was the Spanish equivalent of Columbus Day, Hispanic Day or National Day. This meant no school and a military parade which I accidentally slept through. I wandered around a little during the day and, in the afternoon, I went with Margaret to the Botanic Gardens. She hadn’t visited yet even though I had, but I was really glad I went back because there was a section I had missed the first time around. It was filled with Bonsai trees and it was amazing! I took lots of pictures so I recommend you check out my flickr set to get an idea of the variety (I didn’t take pictures of all of them though). Unfortunately in terms of flowers, it was a little later in the season so there weren’t as many. Regardless, it was a pretty good trip.

Viernes 13 octubre 2006
Friday, the Albellas left for Pamplona to visit Pepa’s mother (Pepa had been gone all week but the rest of the family left after lunch on Friday). Because they were planning to be gone the whole weekend, I figured it would be a good opportunity to cook a little bit on Saturday night for a few of my friends. To that end, I checked out Taste of America, the American grocery store that really just had dry foods and canned foods as opposed to what I needed, but they did have ginger ale which I’d been craving the past couple days. After that, I went to the Corte Ingles for the rest of the food. Corte Ingles is the Spanish one stop shopping center, literally. They have everything. I’m convinced you can buy children there if you look hard enough. (OK, not really, but you get the point.) In the end we found everything but buttermilk but I had looked up how to make it online earlier so it didn’t really matter. Margaret had gone with me and after we finished the shopping we went home and baked some cornbread!! It actually turned out really well. After the cornbread was finished, I went to meet Avery for dinner. I met Avery in the laundry room in Santiago. She’s studying in Madrid with the Colgate program which used to be connected with the Vassar Wesleyan program. We went to this great contemporary Spanish restaurant called La Finca de Susanna. It’s pretty cheap for really good food at a nice restaurant. Unfortunately though, we had to wait an hour for the table so we decided to wander around the area (right by Sol) for a while. Dinner was delicious but we couldn’t hang out for too long afterwards because I had agreed to work on Saturday.

Sabado 14 octubre 2006
Saturday, I worked at Biblioketa most of the day. A few days earlier, Lola, one of the women who run the store called me to warn me to come up with an idea for a workshop. I decided to teach a very basic lesson on the writing of fairy tales since I wasn’t sure how good the kids would be at English given that they’re only 6-8 years old. In the end, though, no one showed up for that part of the day, maybe because it was a holiday weekend. After work, I hurried home so I could meet my friends and we could get started on dinner. I actually ran into them on the metro on the way from work to my house. When we got there, we made a delicious black bean chili-mac and ate that delicious cornbread I had made the day before. Dinner came out really well and it was generally just a very nice night. After my friends left, I made cookies for the Albellas. They turned out perfectly!

Lunes 16 octubre 2006
Nothing too much happened on Sunday but on Monday I had my art class again. I finally finished the drawing I was working on. You can see it to the left of today. I’m really proud of the way it turned out. The shading to me looks really realistic and it looks mostly like the actual teapot. It seemed to take forever to finish, but in the end it was worth it. I think the drawing class is really helping and it’s making me feel more creative/want to draw more often.

Martes 17 octubre 2006
Tuesday I finally started the remainder of my classes. These are the only classes I have with actual Spaniards instead of exclusively foreign students. My first new class is Literatura y Pensamiento (Literature and thought). It’s going to be a pretty hard class because we’re reading really difficult texts: The Odyssey, The Divine Comedy, and Gulliver’s Travels. I’ve included the links to the wikipedia articles on them because I’m not sure who knows anything about them or not. The professor is really nice though and it seems like it should be a good class. My other new class is the Anthropology of Flamenco. It’s a really fun class that combines the history with the dance so we learn a little bit of everything. The first day we watched a movie about all the different styles of flamenco and then we learned a couple of the basic steps. The only problem with my flamenco class is that it doesn’t end until 10 and it takes about an hour to get back home so I’m always starving by the time I reach the apartment.