Hello again,
I always tell myself that I'm going to be good about doing things like writing daily about my life here... and/or blogging about it. But for some reason, I can always think of something I'd rather do. It's a personal resolution of sorts to stop.
Last week classes finally started. We started our 2nd week today. Thus, my life has been a little more mundane... but it is Madrid, so interesting things happen nonetheless.
Mondays and Wednesdays, I have a weird 4 hour break between classes. Today I was super tired, so I came back to the apt and had a nice 2 hour siesta. Teresa got a little worried because when she got home I hadn't eaten lunch and was sleeping... she thought my stomach was bothering me again... but as soon as I woke up I ate a hearty lunch :)
After I wasn't feeling well on my birthday, my stomach started seriously acting up because of the mixture of medicines I was taking. It sucked and Teresa got really worried about me because I wasn't really eating a lot. Thank goodness Dad was just an email away! I'm feeling more or less better now.
My morning classes on Mondays are Spanish and European Institutions followed by Spanish and European Law... these are the two classes I'm taking for Political Science credit, and so far so good. My profesora for Institutions is totally glamorous; she always has tons of jewelry and some crazy outfit, with her hair and makeup perfect - we always wonder what she'll be wearing. My profesora for Derecho (Law) has a voice like honey; she's super well-dressed too. Later, at 6 on Mondays I have Spanish Environment and Society (Medioambiente), which has some sweet field trips later in the semester. The profesor for this class is really cool - we all like him.
Last Monday, I took a siesta too, but not so long because Jaimee came over. She'd been wanting to cut her bangs and I happen to have texturizing scissors which help with that process. So we cut her bangs... but kinda messed up the original side-bang goal... instead she just went with the very Madridleno look - straight bangs. I was a little worried they weren't going to look good, because that afternoon they looked super choppy. But thank goodness the next day they looked great! Maybe I have a new calling to cut my friend's hair... not.
Tuesdays I have my other two classes: Spanish Language - I'm in the high advanced level, but that really just means I'm in the middle of intermediate and perfect - and Colloquial Spanish. Fatima is the teacher for both of them, which is really sweet because I already know her from before and she's totally cool. Colloquial is both hilarious and very useful for everyday use - plus Fatima doesn't mind swearing in Spanish or English :)
Last Tuesday, after buying some books for Institutions, I ate lunch in the cafeteria with the Emilys and California Emily invited me to go to Cadiz with her and Jaimee for Carnaval... I decided I really wanted to go, but had to ask. Later, after my siesta, I went out with Liz because I needed to return some stuff I bought on my birthday and she needed a different size. I realized I'd rather spend the 30€ on traveling than birthday clothes! We did some exploring in Sol a little too.
Wednesdays I have Derecho again in the morning, but then my break. So I decided I really wanted to go to the Retiro Park (think Central Park) since it was a really nice sunny day out. I walked around for about 2 hours, took pictures, did some people watching, marvelled at the amount of statues they could put in one park, etc. Then I went back for lunch and headed to Medioambiente. That night I watched about half of season one of Weeds since Audra was letting me borrow it for "my birthday."
Thursdays are my longest class days. I have Institutions in the morning, following by Language and then Colloquial. Liz was really excited because her host-cousin Miguel Angelo (like Michealangelo) was in town and he wanted to take us out. I was really excited because I finally got the OK to go to Cadiz and Palma Mallorca!
After dinner, I got ready and met Liz and Jaimee at El Jardin for some drinks. David told us about his new Italian roommate who doesn't speak English or Spanish, but came here to look for a job since she can't find one in Italy. Apparently the econonmic crisis is worse there than in Spain, but I'm still not sure why she thinks she has a better chance of finding a job in a country where she doesn't speak the language!
We met up with Miguel and his buddies, who wanted to head to a discoteca Joy, but it was only like 12, so we decided we were going to go to El Soberbia for a little while and meet up with them later. Emily and I shared a bottle of wine and we left around 2 to go meet up with David... I don't remember why we didn't head to Joy then. El Jardin was closing, so we headed to Sol y Sombra. Diego was there, and he gave me free drinks. We danced until it closed, and Diego said that he'd like to meet us at Joy, so his minion Amaudi was going to take us there for free.
Long story short, we didn't get into Joy for free, and the cover was 12 €, so we didn't go. Instead, Dan, Liz, Jaimee, and I sat in the San Ginez chocolateria for an hour and a half waiting for the metro. They ate chocolate con churros, but I didn't. We met Miguel and his friends when Joy closed. It was certianly an interesting night.
Friday afternoon I had to meet the girls who were organizing the Cadiz trip to pay for my fare in Sol. This was the first time that I saw prostitutes in Madrid, which surprised me since it was the middle of the afternoon. Later, I met up with Jaimee, her friends, and Liz in Retiro. We just laid in the sun for a while. It was great!! The first two weeks we were here, it was ridiculously rainy and cold, so we have been enjoying the recent sunshine!
Saturday we went to Cordoba and I didn't get back til 6am after going out on Sat, so I pretty much stayed in bed, watched the rest of Weeds, and did homework yesterday. More on Saturday later.
Food for thought:
What would I be doing if I was at Stetson right now? Probably eating dinner in the coms... lol.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Last Week's Entries
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
It really surprises me the ease with which I fall asleep here. I swear like 10 minutes after I wrote about Monday I was fast asleep – that’s definitely not how I am in the US… not since I can remember.
I slept until 9:30, since I didn’t have to be at UC3 until 11:45. Teresa made me coffee this morning because the other day I asked her why she didn’t drink coffee. I expected there to be coffee all the time, considering that’s what I knew about other Spanish cultures and what I had heard there would be here too. Teresa said that the caffeine affects her greatly, so she doesn’t normally drink it, but that if I wanted some in the mornings she would prepare some for me to heat up. I think that it’s probably for the best she doesn’t drink coffee because she is a pretty intense chain smoker, so one addiction is enough.
Today and yesterday there was some kind of issue with the train, the power kept flickering and it slowed down at odd times. It took a good 20 minutes, plus I have to walk for 10 minutes on either end. It I’m not sure I’m going to take the train normally anymore because, while it’s good exercise for me to walk so much, I think it’s longer. Dan, Liz, and I took the bus/metro route today, and while it’s more transferring for me, I think it’s shorter by 5 or 10 minutes. I don’t know, I’ll have to try it out.
I practically ran to get to Isabel’s office by 11:45, but there was no need, as Chris, her 11:30 appointment was still in the hallway. We each had a 15 minute appointment with her to discuss our classes and extracurriculars, plus anything else we were having issues with. I wound up waiting for about 45 minutes, since she was way behind schedule, but I didn’t mind. I brought my computer and replied to Emily’s message about Stetson (which was hilarious) and looked at some travel destinations. The meeting with Isabel was short, she reimbursed me for my metro, bus, and Renfe tickets (yay! extra cash!) and then we talked mostly about extra activities I might consider. One in particular I think I’ll do is a beginner cooking class, since I really don’t know how to cook and am reluctant to learn on my own. Dan might take it with me too. Isabel also told me about an organic vegetarian restaurant, Viva la Vida, where maybe I’ll go for my birthday this weekend.
After I screwed around on the internet for a while and posted the past week of this “blog,” we had more presentations. Liz and I sat next to each other, and while I was looking through her notebook, I saw an old game of MASH! I was like “No way this is MASH!,” and she said, “duh, it’s one of the coolest games ever.” So, of course, we proceeded to play and laugh silently. My results were pretty epic, as were Liz’s. We also played with Dan and Chris, who were baffled by the fact that we were actually having fun playing the game. We had an extracurricular activities presentation, which was boring until the very attractive guy from ESN, came up to tell us about the weekly activities and trips offered by ESN. Liz, Cali Emily, and I got pretty excited about the idea of karaoke tomorrow night. For the class presentations, most of us just stayed for the ones we wanted to hear and then left to get a coffee. We had a better time drinking coffee then we would have back in the auditorium, but Isabel later was like “Where were you?” Oops.
We took the bus home and I ate dinner with Teresa almost immediately. We talked about cultural differences, mostly because she didn’t understand why Natasha and I get along better than with Sue. I made an extra effort to talk to Sue when she got home, and we had a nice conversation, amid many misunderstandings, about where we live and what we study.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
This was the day that I stopped being good about keeping up with the blog. So this is in retrospect:
Since we didn’t have to take our oral exams, Isabel scheduled for us to go to the Prado. We met at 10am and headed for a short walk over, plus I took a couple funny pictures of Chris and Dan on the way. It started raining as soon as we got to the door where we waited for a while. Isabel was trying to get us in, but then we had to go to another door – it was confusing. When we went to the Prado last summer, we went to one door, but there at least 5 different entrances and exits! It really is a big place. We finally got in and I was excited because I knew that when I came before I missed a lot of the paintings she was going to show and tell us about. When we were looking at Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights my back and knees really started to hurt, so I didn’t appreciate her explanations of El Greco and Goya as much. I was again in awe at Las Meninas, and really enjoyed some of the extra details Isabel gave me that I didn’t know about Velazquez and the painting before.
I headed home for lunch, and shortly after Liz called to go out shopping. She really wanted to find some boots and a flat iron, and I wanted to get some school stuff, as well as a purse if I could find a good deal. Earlier at the Prado, we realized that we only live one metro stop away, so we met at Delicias and headed to Sol.
First we explored the vast expanse that is El Corte Ingles, which is a huge department store, grocery store, electronics store, book store, farmacia. It’s in a couple of different buildings at Sol (there are a couple more around the city) so we just went in the main one. I think it was like eight floors, mostly clothes, shoes, and furniture etc. above the first floor. While on one of the many escalators I head the original version of Call on Me, so of course I immediately thought of Andrea and Kim. I thought it was pretty epic to hear that here. I really want to get that version!
The first floor was the perfumes, purses and accessories area, plus like a CVS. Liz found a flat iron, for what was probably the cheapest she’ll find (for one strong enough to work on her curly hair at least), but she didn’t get it. I don’t blame her for just resigning to having curly hair for a few months. I did point her to the anti-humidity hairspray I use though, and she’s found that quite satisfactory. Downstairs is the grocery store and other random stuff, like notebooks, but I didn’t buy any. Liz had called Jen, who studied here last semester too, and she said to wait until we started classes. However, I did find the “health food” section of the store down there, so maybe I’ll head back if Teresa runs out of veggie ideas.
After El Corte, we walked around looking for a cute boutique shop Liz had seen before, but we went down the wrong street and wound up at Gran Via. It didn’t matter though, because Liz was tired, so we just stopped in a little café and to have some café. The waitress was really sweet, and trendy, and she gave us a little piece of tortilla Espanola too. We walked down a different street back to Sol, and found the store, Linea Cero. It was pretty freezing by that point, so Liz bought a hat. I also found a great purse – inexpensive, cute, and just the right size. Then we looked at shoes a little, but nothing to spark our interest. We also heard some really bad renditions of English songs in Spanish, including Piano Man. I wish that the Delta Sigs could have heard it, although they may have been upset to hear their song being butchered.
We headed home for dinner, but I wasn’t at home long because Jaimee called me and said we were going out since we didn’t have anything to do until late Thursday. It was definitely a good idea. I got ready and headed out to meet them around 10:30. It wound up being just girls, which was cool, and I got to know some of the Marist girls better too. First, we headed to Museo del Jamon, since Jaimee hadn’t eaten dinner. Megan, Liz, Claire, Jaimee, I, shared a jug of sangria, and Jen, Emily, and Audra joined us later. While we were there Megan and I looked through her Top Ten Madrid book, and we all decided that we wanted to go to a different bar tonight, not an “American” one. We headed over to this place, La Alhambra I think, but it was pretty crowed. So we went next door. This was when we met David and Andres, the bartenders of El Jardin Prohibido.
We all ordered drinks, and as we were talking and enjoying ourselves a little later, David came up to us and asked where we were headed after. Since we didn’t know, he offered to take us out with him to Sol y Sombra, and we agreed. I think most of us, especially Liz were excited about this because David is very attractive. At Sol y Sombra, we all got free entrance and shots, because David knows all the right people. He also introduced us to Diego and Papi.
I have no idea what the next bar we went to was called, and I didn’t like it, so it doesn’t matter. It was pretty much a sausage party (all guys) but David protected us from the creepers. We got a free shot again, which I did not want to take, but did anyway… bad idea. It was apple schnapps, which was too sugary for me, so I just hung out with David and Jaimee by the bar since I didn’t feel well after that. We also saw Emily and Audra, who we’d lost at Sol y Sombra, and who randomly decided to come into that bar to pee, crazy (they left after that).
By the time we left and headed to the Salsa club I felt better. Papi and Diego met us there, which was funny because when we got there, there was an almost silent deal with the bouncer to let us in for free. The guys exchanged looks and said “Let the Columbian pass” (or something like that, I was drunk and it was in Spanish). Papi is Columbian, so apparently it meant something to all of them. I got in for free, so I didn’t ask. Inside we all had a really good time drunkenly dancing Salsa and Meringue (I was in my fringe boots so that was interesting too). I tried really hard to get Diego to dance with me, but he insisted he doesn’t dance. We wound up talking for a while because of this. I kept telling him that he’s Brazilian, so he must know how to dance. He danced a little bit.
We left around 5am, which was stupid since the metro opens at 6. We thought about waiting, so we walked to the Spanish equivalent of a 7/11 to get water and snacks. It wound up being too long to wait, so Jaimee, Liz, Jen, and I shared a cab home. David walked.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Isabel told me, Chris, and Liz on Wednesday that we hadn’t turned in a personal information sheet, and (we all thought) needed to go to school to turn it in. Us three, plus some others decided that we were going to go before we had to meet the group at 3:45, and that we’d get our ESN ID cards so that we could do their activities this weekend. Our plans totally did not work.
Liz, Jaimee, and I were tired and hungover. Chris wound up going earlier. I have no idea what happened to everyone else. It took me a really long time to get ready, so I met Liz at UC3 in the computer lab, where we just wasted some time really. We dropped our papers off and didn’t even bother with the ESN ID cards. As we were leaving we saw Megan and Claire arriving, but we made them come with us since I figured it was going to take us a while to get up to Plaza de Colon to meet the group.
I was right. We arrived almost on time to find Dan wandering around confused, and then called Isabel to figure out where we were supposed to be. The plaza was really confusing, so we wound up walking for 10 minutes before we found the bus. This was the same plaza that mom, dad, and I watched the Euro Cup finals in this summer, so it was cool to go back and now I understand where it is in the city! We got on the bus, and I was really confused because I thought we were going to get coffee or something with some Spanish students who are learning English.
Well, I was wrong. We actually went to a suburb of Madrid, Pinto, to visit the School of Languages there. I spent a good part of the bus ride and our introduction extremely confused about what we were doing there. The confusion only increased when the students came and they paired us off and told us we were going on a walk, but then loaded us on the bus. I didn’t understand until they let us off the bus in the center of Pinto and explained that we were to walk with our foreign language friends ½ hour back to the school. It was definitely unnecessarily complicated, but it was fun once we got started.
I was paired with Eva and Vanesa, two high school sophomores, who spoke decent conversational English. They were cute too because they were like my tour guides around Pinto, but to them it’s just where they live, so not much to see. I told them I agreed, that if someone asked for a tour of where I live, I might think they were funny. However, there were things in Pinto that would never be in Seminole! There’s an old downtown, where the streets are super tiny and the buildings look crooked, as well as an old cathedral with storks nesting in the bell tower, and of course the Tower, where a princess was imprisoned a long time ago. Pinto was also designated at some point in history the geographical center of the Iberian Peninsula, so we got some pictures of that monument. I don’t know if it actually is though.
The walk back to the school wasn’t bad, and thankfully it wasn’t too cold. I had a lot of funny conversations with the girls, and we exchanged emails when we got back. They had drinks and a snack for us to talk over back at the school, but Eva and Vanesa had to go study for their chemistry test. We all stayed and I met some of the other students while eating lots of olives, chex mix, and drinking soy orange juice. The bus took us back to Metro Ventas, which is right by the big bull-fighting stadium. I hope we go there to see one before we leave!
When I got home, I was exhausted. Ate dinner and the like, and went to sleep.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Friday at 10am we met at the Ministerio to go to the royal tapestry museum. Natasha had told me about the experience one time at dinner, and it was just like she said. We went on a tour to see the tapestries created from many of Goya’s “cartons” they called them. This was before he became famous as a real painter. There were some tapestries of Picasso and Gris as well. We also got to see the process of rugs being made, which was really interesting… I had never thought of how they were made before. We learned the difference between Turkish rugs and Spanish rugs too (which are more expensive). I felt bad walking on the rugs after that because I could see how much work went into them! We also saw a tapestry being made – this was the part that Natasha told me about – and there was a seemingly random penis with wings and some kind of crown thing on this tapestry that looked like it would have been inspired by 18th century France! So yes, I pointed it out to my friends silently (since I had told them to look for it), and they all agreed that seeing a flying penis on a tapestry made it worth their visit.
After the museum, the people who didn’t have internet issues left and the rest of us went to Apelcom to inquire about the wireless internet deal. It was certainly interesting trying to find the place because the building is also apartments. We accidently knocked on some poor old lady’s door! Anyway, we finally got there and I decided on the deal I wanted, but then when it was my turn to do the paperwork stuff, they told me they didn’t have another modem. So I was like, whatever I’ll come back Monday, and left. I was walking with Kristina, when Isabel called her and told her to tell me to come back upstairs. They’d found another modem that would work Saturday, so I was golden.
I went back to the apt and screwed around a little, installed the modem software, and took a nap. I woke up and realized that I was supposed to be meeting a bunch of people at Plaza Eliptica in like 10 minutes (it takes like 15). I popped out of bed and called Dan and to tell him I was on my way. When I got there, we all headed down to UC3 to get our ESN ID cards and maybe sign up for an excursion. It took us a while to find the office, but of course when we got there, no one was there, ugh. It could have been a wasted trip, but I went ahead and researched travel stuff for like 2 hours with Liz and Megan. When I got home I read through the Europe book that my cousin Meghan gave me to make some lists and possible itineraries for trips (along with dinner) and went to sleep.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
My Birthday!
So I now have internet on my computer, which means that I'll update you all more frequently. Yay!
I have a 3G modem from Vodafone, so technically I can be on the internet anywhere - it's pretty cool.
Today is my birthday, and I'm kinda sick. It's because I went out last night to celebrate, which made my developing cold into a real one. But I think it was worth it - we really had a blast!
Yesterday, I went out shopping and bought a super cute black dress with a lace neckline to wear as my birthday suit with Jaimee and Liz. We also found some great deals at Zara, so I bought myself some little presents.
At 8pm (or more like 8:30), we all met up at La Latina metro station. There were 17 of us in total! Pretty much everyone from Stetson-Marist, plus Natasha and Sue came along with Siera and Emily from UC3 (they're from California). We went to this organic vegetarian restaurant called Viva la Vida, which Isabel recommended to me. I figured for my birthday we could all eat like me! It took us a little bit to find it since it's in the old Moorish part of Madrid with lots of little streets and alleys. I was a little confused when I walked in because it's a pretty tiny place, but then the lady told us that we could all fit in the downstairs seating area, which was furnished and decorated in a very hippie style. The place was a buffet, so we went up in waves to get our food. I was a little worried that people wouldn't like it, but thank goodness everyone loved it! It was definitely some of the best vegetarian food I have ever had, so a good birthday choice.
After dinner some people left, but the rest of us headed over to Sol to find a bar that could fit us all. Most of the bars in Madrid are super tiny, and since it was a Saturday night, they were already filling up. I wanted to go to La Soberia, but it was really crowed, so wandered up the street to Dubliner's, where I knew we'd all get a free shot. We all toasted with our tequila and then I got a glass of wine since it's cheaper than beer - a funny combination of alcohol. Even though we didn't plan on staying long, we met some guys studying in Barcelona from North Dakota of all places. I learned and remembered all their names, which impressed them. They were drinking Corona, so I told Matt that we should drink a "loaded" Corona together, which is when you put either a shot of lemon vodka or white tequila in the beer. He thought I was crazy, but I assured him it tastes good, and he agreed after we ordered the tequila and poured it in - the bartenders were looking at us like we were crazy though.
After I finished that, everyone who hadn't left headed to El Jardin Prohibido, a bar we discovered on Weds were we made friends with David and Andres, the bartenders. David made me a sex on the beach and we chilled while some Brazilian guys hit on Megan and Claire. We lost Audra since she was hanging out with some British actors at the other bar. Emily and Jaimee went to fetch her, and wound up staying there too, so once El Jardin was closing we headed to get them and then to Sol y Sombra, another bar David brought us to on Weds. We also made friends with Papi and Diego, the owner. We all got in for free since David called ahead and told them we were coming, but Audra brought the English actors with her, so she didn't come with us when they weren't allowed in with us. I have no idea where they ended up, but she's alive today.
At Sol y Sombra, Papi gave us all shots of Cacique, a really nice rum, and then when Diego found out it was my birthday, he gave me some kind of flaming shot that I had to drink through a straw - I have no idea what it tasted like. It was really packed so we danced practically on top of one another until it closed. Everyone except me and Jaimee left at this point to go home, but Diego told me to wait for him until he was done and he'd take us to another bar. So despite the cop who was flirtatiously telling us we were supposed to leave, we hung out with the staff (who are all incredibly good-looking) and Melissa gave us a drink while we were waiting. Before Diego was done, one of his "minions" came and told us to come to the bar across the street with him. Papi and some of the other bartenders came with us too. It was definitely a very Spanish dance club, so we were the only Americans, which was fun... and so we also attracted a lot of attention. Papi and Diego hung out with us a little, but then when the bar closed, Diego told us he was going to give us "una copa." So Jaimee and I linked arms with him and headed somewhere... which ended up being his apartment. We enjoyed a glass of wine with the guy sitting on Diego's couch, Fernando, I think - I couldn't figure out what he was doing there because as far as I could tell he didn't live there. Diego showed us pictures of his kids and then we left around 8:30am because he had to go pick up his baby son. I drunkenly took the metro home and got in bed around 9am. Crazy.
That's the most interesting part of my birthday. I didn't get out of bed until 3:30, partly because I was still drunk, and then hungover, but mostly because I couldn't breathe right, so I figured it was easier to just sleep, lol. I ate a little bit of lunch with Natasha - who left for church this morning before I got home. We joked around about my drunken debauchery and her religiosity. I opened up the gift that mom and dad packed for me to have on my birthday, and I LOVE IT! It's a silver box with roses on it and my name engraved, and inside was a necklace and earrings set of amethyst and diamonds - super classy looking! I also opened Keilya's birthday email, which was both thoughtful and hilarious. She sent me a bouquet of roses via a collage she made, but the best part was the fact that she titled it, Surprise! Happy 21st Birthday, but don't get too drunk because you have school tomorrow! Along with the rose theme, I wore the rose scarf that Marie got me out last night :)
I might go see a movie with Liz later, but for now I've just been resting and recuperating since I do indeed have school tomorrow!
Thanks for all the birthday wishes!
I have a 3G modem from Vodafone, so technically I can be on the internet anywhere - it's pretty cool.
Today is my birthday, and I'm kinda sick. It's because I went out last night to celebrate, which made my developing cold into a real one. But I think it was worth it - we really had a blast!
Yesterday, I went out shopping and bought a super cute black dress with a lace neckline to wear as my birthday suit with Jaimee and Liz. We also found some great deals at Zara, so I bought myself some little presents.
At 8pm (or more like 8:30), we all met up at La Latina metro station. There were 17 of us in total! Pretty much everyone from Stetson-Marist, plus Natasha and Sue came along with Siera and Emily from UC3 (they're from California). We went to this organic vegetarian restaurant called Viva la Vida, which Isabel recommended to me. I figured for my birthday we could all eat like me! It took us a little bit to find it since it's in the old Moorish part of Madrid with lots of little streets and alleys. I was a little confused when I walked in because it's a pretty tiny place, but then the lady told us that we could all fit in the downstairs seating area, which was furnished and decorated in a very hippie style. The place was a buffet, so we went up in waves to get our food. I was a little worried that people wouldn't like it, but thank goodness everyone loved it! It was definitely some of the best vegetarian food I have ever had, so a good birthday choice.
After dinner some people left, but the rest of us headed over to Sol to find a bar that could fit us all. Most of the bars in Madrid are super tiny, and since it was a Saturday night, they were already filling up. I wanted to go to La Soberia, but it was really crowed, so wandered up the street to Dubliner's, where I knew we'd all get a free shot. We all toasted with our tequila and then I got a glass of wine since it's cheaper than beer - a funny combination of alcohol. Even though we didn't plan on staying long, we met some guys studying in Barcelona from North Dakota of all places. I learned and remembered all their names, which impressed them. They were drinking Corona, so I told Matt that we should drink a "loaded" Corona together, which is when you put either a shot of lemon vodka or white tequila in the beer. He thought I was crazy, but I assured him it tastes good, and he agreed after we ordered the tequila and poured it in - the bartenders were looking at us like we were crazy though.
After I finished that, everyone who hadn't left headed to El Jardin Prohibido, a bar we discovered on Weds were we made friends with David and Andres, the bartenders. David made me a sex on the beach and we chilled while some Brazilian guys hit on Megan and Claire. We lost Audra since she was hanging out with some British actors at the other bar. Emily and Jaimee went to fetch her, and wound up staying there too, so once El Jardin was closing we headed to get them and then to Sol y Sombra, another bar David brought us to on Weds. We also made friends with Papi and Diego, the owner. We all got in for free since David called ahead and told them we were coming, but Audra brought the English actors with her, so she didn't come with us when they weren't allowed in with us. I have no idea where they ended up, but she's alive today.
At Sol y Sombra, Papi gave us all shots of Cacique, a really nice rum, and then when Diego found out it was my birthday, he gave me some kind of flaming shot that I had to drink through a straw - I have no idea what it tasted like. It was really packed so we danced practically on top of one another until it closed. Everyone except me and Jaimee left at this point to go home, but Diego told me to wait for him until he was done and he'd take us to another bar. So despite the cop who was flirtatiously telling us we were supposed to leave, we hung out with the staff (who are all incredibly good-looking) and Melissa gave us a drink while we were waiting. Before Diego was done, one of his "minions" came and told us to come to the bar across the street with him. Papi and some of the other bartenders came with us too. It was definitely a very Spanish dance club, so we were the only Americans, which was fun... and so we also attracted a lot of attention. Papi and Diego hung out with us a little, but then when the bar closed, Diego told us he was going to give us "una copa." So Jaimee and I linked arms with him and headed somewhere... which ended up being his apartment. We enjoyed a glass of wine with the guy sitting on Diego's couch, Fernando, I think - I couldn't figure out what he was doing there because as far as I could tell he didn't live there. Diego showed us pictures of his kids and then we left around 8:30am because he had to go pick up his baby son. I drunkenly took the metro home and got in bed around 9am. Crazy.
That's the most interesting part of my birthday. I didn't get out of bed until 3:30, partly because I was still drunk, and then hungover, but mostly because I couldn't breathe right, so I figured it was easier to just sleep, lol. I ate a little bit of lunch with Natasha - who left for church this morning before I got home. We joked around about my drunken debauchery and her religiosity. I opened up the gift that mom and dad packed for me to have on my birthday, and I LOVE IT! It's a silver box with roses on it and my name engraved, and inside was a necklace and earrings set of amethyst and diamonds - super classy looking! I also opened Keilya's birthday email, which was both thoughtful and hilarious. She sent me a bouquet of roses via a collage she made, but the best part was the fact that she titled it, Surprise! Happy 21st Birthday, but don't get too drunk because you have school tomorrow! Along with the rose theme, I wore the rose scarf that Marie got me out last night :)
I might go see a movie with Liz later, but for now I've just been resting and recuperating since I do indeed have school tomorrow!
Thanks for all the birthday wishes!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Day 9
Monday, February 2, 2009
I got to sleep in until 8:30 today. This is funny to be because normally I’d be mortified at the idea of getting up so early.
It was rainy and cold again, all day long – no snow today though. I underestimated how cold it was going to be too and didn’t dress right. Then I lost my glove in the Renfe station… really I could’ve predicted that would happen sooner or later – I’m just not used to wearing them so I forget when I’ve taken them off and am holding them… I’m just not happy it happened sooner rather than later. When I got to UC3, I realized I was wearing my scarf from Sat night, which smells like smoke, so I took that off. Plus my snap on my trench coat came off sometime during the day, so it really was not my day as far as clothing was concerned. Thankfully, I spent most of the day inside.
I arrived at UC3 around 10:15 to use the internet for a bit, but I had to be up at Isabel’s office around 10:30 – so really just a bit. While I’ve definitely been handling the no internet situation better than others, it’s still annoying to only be on for a couple minutes here and there.
My left ring finger just cramped up… is that a sign? Haha.
From Isabel’s office we walked over to the main part of campus where we separated to go to our respective classrooms to take our written Spanish placement exams. I thought I did alright, some of the questions were really hard, but hopefully it will place me in the correct level. Last week, we were lucky to have Monica and Fatima as teachers, because they know us now, and also they administered our oral exams in our class breaks. Everyone else has to go to UC3 tomorrow and Thursday to take theirs, and they only take like 5-10 minutes since it’s just a conversation.
After the exams, we all convened in the cafeteria for a café and maybe a bocadillo, and then traversed over to a big classroom where we had a welcome/orientation session. This was boring except for the fact that we got to meet the directors of the Estudios Hispanicos Program… and we got to scope everyone else in the program out. To me it seems like everyone is American. I also organized my planner while the lady was talking, since it was pretty much the exact same things that Isabel has told us more than once.
A copa or cocktail style lunch ensued, where I ate mostly cheese and potatoes… cheese sandwich, cheese croquette, and a potato tortilla. I also enjoyed a nice glass of white wine and sipped Dan’s red, which was good too. Later this lunch came back to haunt me in the form of indigestion, ugh. I think I should moderate my intake of cheese from now on. We kind of mingled with the other students, I met mostly girls from California and a couple from DC, and exchanged numbers with Sierra and Emily from UC Davis.
After lunch, we went to a big auditorium where the EH professors gave us presentations on their specific class… this lasted for over 2 hours. I knew already that I didn’t want to take a lot of the classes, so after a bit, Dan, Jaime, Stef, Chris, and I decided to head over to use the internet for a bit. This is when I started feeling bad. Dan and I headed back to hear the last two presentations, which might have been a mistake considering the last one (Medioambiente) was like a half hour and I already knew I wanted to take it.
We walked to the bus with our new UC Davis friends and I headed home. Back in Madrid, Natasha and I hung out for a bit watching the Guardian and Will & Grace, talking about her trip to Lisbon tomorrow, and then we took a walk to get money from the ATM. Sue and Teresa were mysteriously missing until late. She also told me about how one of her exes just got engaged to the girl he broke up with her for, always a weird situation. I still feel like I’m too young to know people who are getting engaged and married, even my sister. We ate dinner and then she left to spend the night at Lucas’ apt. And well, after she left I started writing this… with an interruption when Teresa got home… so now that I’m done I’m going to sleep.
I got to sleep in until 8:30 today. This is funny to be because normally I’d be mortified at the idea of getting up so early.
It was rainy and cold again, all day long – no snow today though. I underestimated how cold it was going to be too and didn’t dress right. Then I lost my glove in the Renfe station… really I could’ve predicted that would happen sooner or later – I’m just not used to wearing them so I forget when I’ve taken them off and am holding them… I’m just not happy it happened sooner rather than later. When I got to UC3, I realized I was wearing my scarf from Sat night, which smells like smoke, so I took that off. Plus my snap on my trench coat came off sometime during the day, so it really was not my day as far as clothing was concerned. Thankfully, I spent most of the day inside.
I arrived at UC3 around 10:15 to use the internet for a bit, but I had to be up at Isabel’s office around 10:30 – so really just a bit. While I’ve definitely been handling the no internet situation better than others, it’s still annoying to only be on for a couple minutes here and there.
My left ring finger just cramped up… is that a sign? Haha.
From Isabel’s office we walked over to the main part of campus where we separated to go to our respective classrooms to take our written Spanish placement exams. I thought I did alright, some of the questions were really hard, but hopefully it will place me in the correct level. Last week, we were lucky to have Monica and Fatima as teachers, because they know us now, and also they administered our oral exams in our class breaks. Everyone else has to go to UC3 tomorrow and Thursday to take theirs, and they only take like 5-10 minutes since it’s just a conversation.
After the exams, we all convened in the cafeteria for a café and maybe a bocadillo, and then traversed over to a big classroom where we had a welcome/orientation session. This was boring except for the fact that we got to meet the directors of the Estudios Hispanicos Program… and we got to scope everyone else in the program out. To me it seems like everyone is American. I also organized my planner while the lady was talking, since it was pretty much the exact same things that Isabel has told us more than once.
A copa or cocktail style lunch ensued, where I ate mostly cheese and potatoes… cheese sandwich, cheese croquette, and a potato tortilla. I also enjoyed a nice glass of white wine and sipped Dan’s red, which was good too. Later this lunch came back to haunt me in the form of indigestion, ugh. I think I should moderate my intake of cheese from now on. We kind of mingled with the other students, I met mostly girls from California and a couple from DC, and exchanged numbers with Sierra and Emily from UC Davis.
After lunch, we went to a big auditorium where the EH professors gave us presentations on their specific class… this lasted for over 2 hours. I knew already that I didn’t want to take a lot of the classes, so after a bit, Dan, Jaime, Stef, Chris, and I decided to head over to use the internet for a bit. This is when I started feeling bad. Dan and I headed back to hear the last two presentations, which might have been a mistake considering the last one (Medioambiente) was like a half hour and I already knew I wanted to take it.
We walked to the bus with our new UC Davis friends and I headed home. Back in Madrid, Natasha and I hung out for a bit watching the Guardian and Will & Grace, talking about her trip to Lisbon tomorrow, and then we took a walk to get money from the ATM. Sue and Teresa were mysteriously missing until late. She also told me about how one of her exes just got engaged to the girl he broke up with her for, always a weird situation. I still feel like I’m too young to know people who are getting engaged and married, even my sister. We ate dinner and then she left to spend the night at Lucas’ apt. And well, after she left I started writing this… with an interruption when Teresa got home… so now that I’m done I’m going to sleep.
Day 8
Sunday, February 1, 2009
I knew I was going to be hungover today, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying a nice day. I woke up and immediately took some naprosyn with a lot of water. It worked. Sunday is the day of El Rastro, or the big (flea) market, in Madrid. Isabel and Monica told us all about El Rastro, and we were scheduled to meet at 10am at the La Iglesia metro stop for our tour (so we wouldn’t be hopelessly lost).
Natasha hadn’t been yet so she decided to come with me, but we were a little slow in the morning, so we were about 15 minutes late to meet the group. Furthermore, it was rainy and cold, not the best day for an open-air market, even though Teresa said there would still be plenty of people shopping. So when we got to La Iglesia, I called Isabel to see where they were and we headed off to meet them. Apparently, she’d sent us all a text message earlier that morning that since it was raining, the tour was optional… I wish I would’ve known because when we left I still felt drunk…
Only about 8 others decided to go (some of them hadn’t gotten the text either) and Natasha and I missed most of the tour, so it seemed like it might be a pointless trip. Plus I had mistakenly worn my suede boots since it was only drizzling when we left, but it was raining pretty hard at El Rastro. My boots definitely suffered. However, just as we went into a little café at the end of the tour, it started snowing! For me, this event was worth the trip. It wasn’t just snowing; it was snowing HUGE flakes, globs of snow, really. It was too warm to stick, so it was basically the worst kind of snow, but it was still really awesome to see – I’d never seen anything like it before. Natasha and I got waters, and ventured out into the snow to see if we could find some cheap scarves for her. Thankfully, we’d only wandered for about 5 minutes before we saw the perfect tent, 2 scarves for 5€. We picked out her white and light blue scarves and headed back home.
I took some pictures of the snow outside my window, and then opened my curtains so I could continue looking at it, as it continued to fall well into the afternoon. I spent most of this time uploading and organizing my pictures on the computer, since I still didn’t feel like doing anything intelligent. Around 1:30, I took a nap, and Teresa and Natasha woke me up at 3 for lunch.
After we ate and talked for a while, I helped Natasha study for her Spanish test. Once I had exhausted my usefulness there, I started writing… and wrote for most of the afternoon and evening in what’s now turned out to be my electronic journal. I also watched the Guardian and cleaned my room. Since I didn’t have to get up to early Monday, I stayed up until like one doing random stuff.
I knew I was going to be hungover today, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying a nice day. I woke up and immediately took some naprosyn with a lot of water. It worked. Sunday is the day of El Rastro, or the big (flea) market, in Madrid. Isabel and Monica told us all about El Rastro, and we were scheduled to meet at 10am at the La Iglesia metro stop for our tour (so we wouldn’t be hopelessly lost).
Natasha hadn’t been yet so she decided to come with me, but we were a little slow in the morning, so we were about 15 minutes late to meet the group. Furthermore, it was rainy and cold, not the best day for an open-air market, even though Teresa said there would still be plenty of people shopping. So when we got to La Iglesia, I called Isabel to see where they were and we headed off to meet them. Apparently, she’d sent us all a text message earlier that morning that since it was raining, the tour was optional… I wish I would’ve known because when we left I still felt drunk…
Only about 8 others decided to go (some of them hadn’t gotten the text either) and Natasha and I missed most of the tour, so it seemed like it might be a pointless trip. Plus I had mistakenly worn my suede boots since it was only drizzling when we left, but it was raining pretty hard at El Rastro. My boots definitely suffered. However, just as we went into a little café at the end of the tour, it started snowing! For me, this event was worth the trip. It wasn’t just snowing; it was snowing HUGE flakes, globs of snow, really. It was too warm to stick, so it was basically the worst kind of snow, but it was still really awesome to see – I’d never seen anything like it before. Natasha and I got waters, and ventured out into the snow to see if we could find some cheap scarves for her. Thankfully, we’d only wandered for about 5 minutes before we saw the perfect tent, 2 scarves for 5€. We picked out her white and light blue scarves and headed back home.
I took some pictures of the snow outside my window, and then opened my curtains so I could continue looking at it, as it continued to fall well into the afternoon. I spent most of this time uploading and organizing my pictures on the computer, since I still didn’t feel like doing anything intelligent. Around 1:30, I took a nap, and Teresa and Natasha woke me up at 3 for lunch.
After we ate and talked for a while, I helped Natasha study for her Spanish test. Once I had exhausted my usefulness there, I started writing… and wrote for most of the afternoon and evening in what’s now turned out to be my electronic journal. I also watched the Guardian and cleaned my room. Since I didn’t have to get up to early Monday, I stayed up until like one doing random stuff.
Day 7 - One week!
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Natasha and I had been planning on going to a city a little to the south of Madrid today, Aranjuez, but then when I asked Isabel about it she reminded me that she’d changed the schedule and we were planning on going to the big park, El Retiro, in the morning, not the afternoon. Neither set of plans happened.
We all woke up to rain and fog, not an ideal day for rowing on the lake in El Retiro Park or strolling in the palace gardens at Aranjuez. By the time we meet at Ministerio de Agricultura at 10am, it wasn’t raining anymore, but it was pretty cold and dreary. Isabel gave us the choice of going to the park or the Reina Sofia museum. I voted for the park because I thought it might clear up (the weather changes pretty fast here) and I didn’t feel like doing two art museums two days in a row. I was outvoted though, so we went to Reina Sofia. There were some late people to wait for, so some people looked around in the bookstore and some others and I went into the museum restaurant for a café. The café took a little longer than we thought, so we got in a little trouble with Isabel for leaving our waiting spot.
By the time we were in the museum the sky was already starting to lighten up, and it actually turned out to be a really nice day. However, the Reina Sofia was a really awesome museum too. We spent the whole morning and into the afternoon there looking at Picasso, Dali, Miro, Gris, and other famous Spanish contemporary artists. We spent probably a half hour looking at and talking about Guernica. Dan and I said after we were done, “check!” on our imaginary list of things we want to do in our lives. Isabel freed us, but Audra, she, and I went up to the abstract art floor. This was definitely very interesting, because while I don’t particularly like most abstract art, I always like looking at it… appreciating it in some way. There were a few that I liked, and I discovered the artist who invented the color Klein Blue (it’s fantastic!).
I got home in time for lunch and Teresa told us that we were going to go with her to Plaza Mayor later for a horse show. I thought it was at 4:00, which means 2 ½ hours until sunset and so I didn’t dress warmly enough. We left at 3:30 and got to the Plaza where it was sunny and bright, so I took a lot of pictures, to wait in line to get a seat at the show (it was free). It was then that I learned the show was at 5:30, and I knew I’d be really cold later… oops.
Waiting in line was fun, talking with Natasha and Teresa, taking funny pictures, watching Sue do odd (but unfortunately stereotypical Asian tourist) things. Near the time when they were going to let us in some chaos started because people were cutting in the line. Teresa got very adamant about it, and so did a lot of the other older people in line… Natasha and I never realized how cutthroat old people could be! There was a lot of pushing and yelling when they let us in, I almost got pushed over the gate thing, but Teresa got in to get us pretty good seats in the third row back and the chaos subsided. I personally thought it was pretty entertaining to see these people get so worked up about getting a seat at this horse show.
While we were waiting for the show to start, Natasha and I scoped out some cute guys who were standing on the balcony watching. We discovered that we have very similar taste in guys. We also realized that we were already freezing. The show started with lots of pomp and circumstance about the dancing horses. It was entertaining at points, what they were doing with the horses was definitely very difficult, but like Teresa said, it got really repetitive. They did some hopping and jumping which was something I’d never seen before, and I think I got some good footage of it. By the time the show ended, about 6:15, our toes were numb and we were ready to go home pronto. But Sue told Teresa that she wanted to go see the Palacio, so we had to walk over there first before going home. Natasha and I were feeling a little ill will toward Sue on that walk… it was windy, freezing, getting dark, and we were just in hoodies basically, plus we’ve both seen the Palacio a bunch. I hope we hid it.
When we got home, Teresa left to go on a walk with her friend and Sue went to use the internet, so Natasha and I watched TV for a while. She introduced me to The Guardian and we watched some Disney channel, which I hate and she loves, but it’s always a lot funnier watching it with her. I texted Jaimee some, and we decided we were going to go out at 10:30. Natasha stayed to sleep, so I went alone and thankfully didn’t get lost.
It wound up that it was just Jaimee and I who hung out, but it was great, she’s really cool. We went first to a little cerveceria to warm up and had an interesting red beverage. We think it was like a wine spritzer, but it came from the tap so who knows. Then we talked to Jennifer who told us about a bar they used to hang out at a lot last semester called O’Doul’s, so we went. It was basically an Irish sports bar, with a very diverse selection of people and music. I was telling her about how Europeans love to listen to American songs that are at least 10 or 15 years old, like Gangster’s Paradise… that song came on like 3 minutes later. We had some wine and beer, got hit on by an old guy and some cute Spaniards, and then moved on.
Just right down the street I’d seen a bar that looked cool, so we went in… it turns out it was the same bar, La Soberia, that I’d been to on Wednesday, I just didn’t realize it. So we went in and the same bartender was there. He recognized me and beckoned me to the back, hey chica your amigas are here. I was a little confused, I thought it might be the Dutch guys, but it was some girls I didn’t know. We sat down at a little table, he brought us some sangria, and we watched him take tequila shots with those girls next to us. Next thing we knew he was telling us to join in on the next shot, and we agreed. We moved over to the table, and so by the end of the night, the girls he thought were my friends actually were. We wound up taking 3 shots; ugh I feel sick thinking about it now, and drinking another sangria. Needless to say I was pretty drunk. The girls were from France and then they had some German friends who joined us later, but we talked in Spanish as the common second/third language. We took taxi home at around 3am. It was a fun night.
Natasha and I had been planning on going to a city a little to the south of Madrid today, Aranjuez, but then when I asked Isabel about it she reminded me that she’d changed the schedule and we were planning on going to the big park, El Retiro, in the morning, not the afternoon. Neither set of plans happened.
We all woke up to rain and fog, not an ideal day for rowing on the lake in El Retiro Park or strolling in the palace gardens at Aranjuez. By the time we meet at Ministerio de Agricultura at 10am, it wasn’t raining anymore, but it was pretty cold and dreary. Isabel gave us the choice of going to the park or the Reina Sofia museum. I voted for the park because I thought it might clear up (the weather changes pretty fast here) and I didn’t feel like doing two art museums two days in a row. I was outvoted though, so we went to Reina Sofia. There were some late people to wait for, so some people looked around in the bookstore and some others and I went into the museum restaurant for a café. The café took a little longer than we thought, so we got in a little trouble with Isabel for leaving our waiting spot.
By the time we were in the museum the sky was already starting to lighten up, and it actually turned out to be a really nice day. However, the Reina Sofia was a really awesome museum too. We spent the whole morning and into the afternoon there looking at Picasso, Dali, Miro, Gris, and other famous Spanish contemporary artists. We spent probably a half hour looking at and talking about Guernica. Dan and I said after we were done, “check!” on our imaginary list of things we want to do in our lives. Isabel freed us, but Audra, she, and I went up to the abstract art floor. This was definitely very interesting, because while I don’t particularly like most abstract art, I always like looking at it… appreciating it in some way. There were a few that I liked, and I discovered the artist who invented the color Klein Blue (it’s fantastic!).
I got home in time for lunch and Teresa told us that we were going to go with her to Plaza Mayor later for a horse show. I thought it was at 4:00, which means 2 ½ hours until sunset and so I didn’t dress warmly enough. We left at 3:30 and got to the Plaza where it was sunny and bright, so I took a lot of pictures, to wait in line to get a seat at the show (it was free). It was then that I learned the show was at 5:30, and I knew I’d be really cold later… oops.
Waiting in line was fun, talking with Natasha and Teresa, taking funny pictures, watching Sue do odd (but unfortunately stereotypical Asian tourist) things. Near the time when they were going to let us in some chaos started because people were cutting in the line. Teresa got very adamant about it, and so did a lot of the other older people in line… Natasha and I never realized how cutthroat old people could be! There was a lot of pushing and yelling when they let us in, I almost got pushed over the gate thing, but Teresa got in to get us pretty good seats in the third row back and the chaos subsided. I personally thought it was pretty entertaining to see these people get so worked up about getting a seat at this horse show.
While we were waiting for the show to start, Natasha and I scoped out some cute guys who were standing on the balcony watching. We discovered that we have very similar taste in guys. We also realized that we were already freezing. The show started with lots of pomp and circumstance about the dancing horses. It was entertaining at points, what they were doing with the horses was definitely very difficult, but like Teresa said, it got really repetitive. They did some hopping and jumping which was something I’d never seen before, and I think I got some good footage of it. By the time the show ended, about 6:15, our toes were numb and we were ready to go home pronto. But Sue told Teresa that she wanted to go see the Palacio, so we had to walk over there first before going home. Natasha and I were feeling a little ill will toward Sue on that walk… it was windy, freezing, getting dark, and we were just in hoodies basically, plus we’ve both seen the Palacio a bunch. I hope we hid it.
When we got home, Teresa left to go on a walk with her friend and Sue went to use the internet, so Natasha and I watched TV for a while. She introduced me to The Guardian and we watched some Disney channel, which I hate and she loves, but it’s always a lot funnier watching it with her. I texted Jaimee some, and we decided we were going to go out at 10:30. Natasha stayed to sleep, so I went alone and thankfully didn’t get lost.
It wound up that it was just Jaimee and I who hung out, but it was great, she’s really cool. We went first to a little cerveceria to warm up and had an interesting red beverage. We think it was like a wine spritzer, but it came from the tap so who knows. Then we talked to Jennifer who told us about a bar they used to hang out at a lot last semester called O’Doul’s, so we went. It was basically an Irish sports bar, with a very diverse selection of people and music. I was telling her about how Europeans love to listen to American songs that are at least 10 or 15 years old, like Gangster’s Paradise… that song came on like 3 minutes later. We had some wine and beer, got hit on by an old guy and some cute Spaniards, and then moved on.
Just right down the street I’d seen a bar that looked cool, so we went in… it turns out it was the same bar, La Soberia, that I’d been to on Wednesday, I just didn’t realize it. So we went in and the same bartender was there. He recognized me and beckoned me to the back, hey chica your amigas are here. I was a little confused, I thought it might be the Dutch guys, but it was some girls I didn’t know. We sat down at a little table, he brought us some sangria, and we watched him take tequila shots with those girls next to us. Next thing we knew he was telling us to join in on the next shot, and we agreed. We moved over to the table, and so by the end of the night, the girls he thought were my friends actually were. We wound up taking 3 shots; ugh I feel sick thinking about it now, and drinking another sangria. Needless to say I was pretty drunk. The girls were from France and then they had some German friends who joined us later, but we talked in Spanish as the common second/third language. We took taxi home at around 3am. It was a fun night.
Day 6
Friday, January 30, 2009
I had a free morning, so I slept in until 10:30 – 12 hours of sleep.
Natasha and I had planned to do some sightseeing when she got back around 1pm, so I decided to do some errands. I went to the locutorio around the corner to use the internet, composed an email to the fam… and just as I was saying goodbye I went to hit Delete and hit another button that turned off the computer. I lost the whole email and a good half hour of writing, which was annoying so I didn’t recompose the email then… I moved on to facebook instead.I had planned on going to El Corte Ingles, which is a big department store kind of place here, but it was 12:30 by the time I was done with the internet.
I decided to just explore the main street by the apt, Paseo de Delicias. I walked until I reached Plaza Beata Maria Ana de Jesus, where I was lucky enough to find an Herbolario. Inside I inquired about some vitamins, but they were wicked expensive; however, the store did have tofu and tofu “burgers” so I bought some to give to Teresa to cook for me. Then a little bit later, as I was walking back on the opposite side of the street I encountered a beauty supplies store. I bought some hairspray, mousse, and intensive healing hand cream because ever since I went to Philadelphia my hands have been dying from the cold. I would have bought shampoo/conditioner, but they didn’t have any au natural products – they told me to inquire at a farmacia.
Natasha and I ate lunch and then left to visit San Sebastian El Grande and La Almudena. We enjoyed the sunshine and saw lots of PDA and graffiti near San Sebastian, which was funny at a holy place. San Sebastian was closed, but we went inside La Almudena and took lots of pictures. I went here last summer, but didn’t really go inside since there was a mass going on.
Then we walked over to Sol and ventured into H&M, where I bought a purple bag that I’m going to use as my backpack (my laptop fits!) and a lint roller for my black pea coat. I think I’m definitely going to have to go back to buy some clothes to go out in, I don’t think I have enough “cute/nice” clothes.
Then we went back to the apt, where I quickly grabbed plane ticket money for Isabel and headed out to meet the group for an outing to Museo Sorolla. I was like 10 minutes late, so they’d already left, but I looked on the map on got on the metro. I called Isabel and she told me where to meet them, when I got off somehow they were just leaving the metro too, so it worked out perfectly. Isabel calls me una chica despabilada, which basically means “sharp” so I’m glad she likes me and takes my solutions when I’m late as cleverness.
The museum was really awesome. This is definitely a museum that I would recommend people visit – it has really gorgeous gardens too. It’s situated in the house Sorolla built in the Mediterranean style here in Madrid in the early 1900s, so it’s small enough to enjoy and not get tired of looking at paintings. His art is for the most part impressionism, but with his own very unique style, which focuses on lighting not the actual subject. I took a lot of pictures (one is my desktop background now) and almost got in trouble because the one guard thought that the “in focus” light on my camera was a flash… I have a funny picture of her yelling at me.
After the museo, we took the metro to Sol where we went to a Tapas restaurant. The ambience was really fun and authentic, but unfortunately the authentic Spanish tapas consist mainly of meat. Isabel ordered me a salad so that my dinner wouldn’t consist of potatoes in different forms (French fries, patatas bravas, tortilla de patata). I had a really good time at dinner talking with Dan, Liz, and Chris. Later we (finally) exchanged numbers because we wanted to go out… but we made a bad decision of returning home. None of us wound up going out because we all fell asleep… Natasha and I slept through our alarms and I left my light on. Teresa turned it off at like 3am.
I had a free morning, so I slept in until 10:30 – 12 hours of sleep.
Natasha and I had planned to do some sightseeing when she got back around 1pm, so I decided to do some errands. I went to the locutorio around the corner to use the internet, composed an email to the fam… and just as I was saying goodbye I went to hit Delete and hit another button that turned off the computer. I lost the whole email and a good half hour of writing, which was annoying so I didn’t recompose the email then… I moved on to facebook instead.I had planned on going to El Corte Ingles, which is a big department store kind of place here, but it was 12:30 by the time I was done with the internet.
I decided to just explore the main street by the apt, Paseo de Delicias. I walked until I reached Plaza Beata Maria Ana de Jesus, where I was lucky enough to find an Herbolario. Inside I inquired about some vitamins, but they were wicked expensive; however, the store did have tofu and tofu “burgers” so I bought some to give to Teresa to cook for me. Then a little bit later, as I was walking back on the opposite side of the street I encountered a beauty supplies store. I bought some hairspray, mousse, and intensive healing hand cream because ever since I went to Philadelphia my hands have been dying from the cold. I would have bought shampoo/conditioner, but they didn’t have any au natural products – they told me to inquire at a farmacia.
Natasha and I ate lunch and then left to visit San Sebastian El Grande and La Almudena. We enjoyed the sunshine and saw lots of PDA and graffiti near San Sebastian, which was funny at a holy place. San Sebastian was closed, but we went inside La Almudena and took lots of pictures. I went here last summer, but didn’t really go inside since there was a mass going on.
Then we walked over to Sol and ventured into H&M, where I bought a purple bag that I’m going to use as my backpack (my laptop fits!) and a lint roller for my black pea coat. I think I’m definitely going to have to go back to buy some clothes to go out in, I don’t think I have enough “cute/nice” clothes.
Then we went back to the apt, where I quickly grabbed plane ticket money for Isabel and headed out to meet the group for an outing to Museo Sorolla. I was like 10 minutes late, so they’d already left, but I looked on the map on got on the metro. I called Isabel and she told me where to meet them, when I got off somehow they were just leaving the metro too, so it worked out perfectly. Isabel calls me una chica despabilada, which basically means “sharp” so I’m glad she likes me and takes my solutions when I’m late as cleverness.
The museum was really awesome. This is definitely a museum that I would recommend people visit – it has really gorgeous gardens too. It’s situated in the house Sorolla built in the Mediterranean style here in Madrid in the early 1900s, so it’s small enough to enjoy and not get tired of looking at paintings. His art is for the most part impressionism, but with his own very unique style, which focuses on lighting not the actual subject. I took a lot of pictures (one is my desktop background now) and almost got in trouble because the one guard thought that the “in focus” light on my camera was a flash… I have a funny picture of her yelling at me.
After the museo, we took the metro to Sol where we went to a Tapas restaurant. The ambience was really fun and authentic, but unfortunately the authentic Spanish tapas consist mainly of meat. Isabel ordered me a salad so that my dinner wouldn’t consist of potatoes in different forms (French fries, patatas bravas, tortilla de patata). I had a really good time at dinner talking with Dan, Liz, and Chris. Later we (finally) exchanged numbers because we wanted to go out… but we made a bad decision of returning home. None of us wound up going out because we all fell asleep… Natasha and I slept through our alarms and I left my light on. Teresa turned it off at like 3am.
Day 5
Thursday, January 29, 2009
The morning went as usual. I missed the 9:25 train and so I practically ran to get to class on time, but it was fine. I’ve been getting a lot of exercise power walking to places when I’m late – getting places here takes longer than I’m used to (not like Stetson where I can walk out of the Pi Phi house 5 minutes before class).
Monica went over a bunch of vocabulary that seems simple but a lot of us have forgotten, plus the vosotros form, which we don’t really learn in the US. Fatima taught us a bunch of colloquial Spanish through music, and I think I want to take her class that focuses solely on that subject. It seems like something that will be useful for my time here. During the break I had my oral “exam” with Monica, which was really just me talking to her about random stuff.
After class, this really eccentric guy who started Canterbury English Schools came to talk to us about taking his class or workshop to learn how to teach English as a 2nd language. I think that I’m going to do the 2 ½ hour workshop – it’ll be interesting for me considering I already taught English in Pierson last semester. I think it’ll be useful (but maybe not) and hopefully I can bring some suggestions back to improve the classes at Pierson.
When he was done, Isabel finished her orientation with us, mostly about culture shock (which I think is a stupid name for being close-minded). I did learn a bunch of things about peculiarities of Spanish culture, like they ask people everything 3 times in a kind of social game of politeness.
Back at the apartment, I met Sue, the Chinese arrival. She was really upset that Teresa doesn’t have internet (as I’m typing this she’s still trying to hack into the local wireless lines that come up as security-enabled). We talked for a while about the internet; it was a little difficult because she speaks English and Spanish with a thick Chinese accent (a LOT of difficulty with l’s and r’s). Then I hung out with her and Teresa while she explained some things to her, like what to call her and Spanish last names. I learned that Teresa, or MayTe as a nickname for Maria Teresa, is separated from her husband (not divorced because she’s very Catholic) and doesn’t have any children, which is why she takes exchange students – we’re like her daughters.
Sue doesn’t go to UC3 either, but rather a private school in Madrid like Natasha. Isabel told us during our orientation to UC3 that we are studying at the best school in Madrid because it is public – that in Spain going to a private school is not prestigious as in the states. Instead, public universities, which are very inexpensive, only admit the best students and they don’t have to pay a lot as their reward… and it’s an incentive to keep doing well, because not so good students have to pay a lot to go to private schools, which have lower standards.
That night I watched TV with Natasha and fell asleep around 10:30… rare for me normally, but it seems to be when I get tired here.
The morning went as usual. I missed the 9:25 train and so I practically ran to get to class on time, but it was fine. I’ve been getting a lot of exercise power walking to places when I’m late – getting places here takes longer than I’m used to (not like Stetson where I can walk out of the Pi Phi house 5 minutes before class).
Monica went over a bunch of vocabulary that seems simple but a lot of us have forgotten, plus the vosotros form, which we don’t really learn in the US. Fatima taught us a bunch of colloquial Spanish through music, and I think I want to take her class that focuses solely on that subject. It seems like something that will be useful for my time here. During the break I had my oral “exam” with Monica, which was really just me talking to her about random stuff.
After class, this really eccentric guy who started Canterbury English Schools came to talk to us about taking his class or workshop to learn how to teach English as a 2nd language. I think that I’m going to do the 2 ½ hour workshop – it’ll be interesting for me considering I already taught English in Pierson last semester. I think it’ll be useful (but maybe not) and hopefully I can bring some suggestions back to improve the classes at Pierson.
When he was done, Isabel finished her orientation with us, mostly about culture shock (which I think is a stupid name for being close-minded). I did learn a bunch of things about peculiarities of Spanish culture, like they ask people everything 3 times in a kind of social game of politeness.
Back at the apartment, I met Sue, the Chinese arrival. She was really upset that Teresa doesn’t have internet (as I’m typing this she’s still trying to hack into the local wireless lines that come up as security-enabled). We talked for a while about the internet; it was a little difficult because she speaks English and Spanish with a thick Chinese accent (a LOT of difficulty with l’s and r’s). Then I hung out with her and Teresa while she explained some things to her, like what to call her and Spanish last names. I learned that Teresa, or MayTe as a nickname for Maria Teresa, is separated from her husband (not divorced because she’s very Catholic) and doesn’t have any children, which is why she takes exchange students – we’re like her daughters.
Sue doesn’t go to UC3 either, but rather a private school in Madrid like Natasha. Isabel told us during our orientation to UC3 that we are studying at the best school in Madrid because it is public – that in Spain going to a private school is not prestigious as in the states. Instead, public universities, which are very inexpensive, only admit the best students and they don’t have to pay a lot as their reward… and it’s an incentive to keep doing well, because not so good students have to pay a lot to go to private schools, which have lower standards.
That night I watched TV with Natasha and fell asleep around 10:30… rare for me normally, but it seems to be when I get tired here.
Day 4
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
This was the first day that I took the Renfe to UC3 alone… all went well on both ways. I got there a little early, so I checked my email/facebook and went up to Spanish class. Monica taught us more about food and then shopping for clothes. Fatima continued teaching us about music, and I really liked one of the groups we listened to, Nena Daconte, I might buy some of their music - the rest were just ok. I was able to use the internet in the break to write some updates instead of going to the cafeteria since I brought my water bottle (the tap water here is great).
After class, Isabel gave us the first part of her orientation – info about classes at UC3, living with a host family, and alcohol consumption. Once Isabel gave us the material about the Estudios Hispanicos classes, everyone went crazy worrying about what they were going to take. I just figured I’d wait for my advising session rather than speculate.
We then went to the cafeteria for lunch with Juanjo and a couple of other intercambio students from Spain. The food was ok, you know, cafeteria food, but it was funny because I asked what the vegetarian entrée was and she said the tortilla de vegetales. Yet, as soon as I bit into it, I could taste it had ham in it (it wasn’t good either). This is a funny thing I read might happen here…that they don’t consider ham to be meat and they put it in everything! So I ate my spinach soup and salad. We wound up speaking English most of the time, since they all wanted to practice with us. This is something else I think is funny, it happened to me a bunch in Ecuador and Guatemala… as soon as someone knows you speak English, they’d rather practice with you than let you speak Spanish. The girls I was sitting by gave me a hard time too because I was attracting attention from the male intercambio students… William sat next to me for a while and we talked about politics, which was interesting because he was pro-Bush/Iraq War. Maybe it wasn’t something we should have been talking about at our first meeting, but whatever, it’s always entertaining to hear what people think about that subject in particular and it definitely got everyone talking. We talked about sports too.
They kicked us out of the cafeteria area, but we went downstairs for café because we still had time to kill before leaving… we were going to the movies later. Most of the intercambio students left us then, and I sat with mostly my new friends from Marist. This was good because I got to know them better, about Poughkeepsie, Marist, their lives, etc. One of the intercambio guys Fernando went with us to the movies (again the girls and I giggled because he was paying me a lot of attention at first). We went on the bus and then the metro to an eastern part of the city I have yet to explore. Then we had to power walk for about 10 minutes because we were late, and even though it was cold, by the time we got to the theater I was sweaty.
The movie we saw was called La Mujer de Anarquia (The Wife of Anarchy), which was the story of a woman during and after the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. I understood most of what was going on, until the end and it got confusing, but Isabel clarified it for us afterward. I thought it was a good movie, plus it was an entertaining way to learn more about this time in Spanish history that dictates a lot of how they operate now. (It helped a lot later when we were at the Reina Sofia museum too)
When I got home, it was perfect timing because Natasha and Teresa were just sitting down for dinner. We talked about how the next day another girl was coming to live with us. Teresa called her “la chinita” because she’s Chinese (she doesn’t call her that to her face though). I also learned that she’d be staying in Natasha’s room because Stetson’s policy says that students living in home stays aren’t allowed to share rooms – so I’m definitely thankful for that ! Natasha also invited me to go out with her that night – I figured, why not?
So after dinner we got ready for what she told me was a “red, yellow, or green” party. I wore the only thing I had clean in those colors, my red knit dress.We left to get to the club at 11:30 and miraculously found the place… when we were walking down what we hoped was the right street, we saw the line and her friends. Her friends happened to be all guys, from the Netherlands and one German, Lukas. At this point in time I learned that the party was actually traffic light themed in a club that caters toward Americans (Dan told me later that they have them at Marist and he thinks they’re stupid). They gave me a hard time for not understanding the theme and wearing red, which means “I’m not available,” but I think would’ve probably been the best choice anyway to not attract unwanted attention. I say would’ve because we never actually went to the club, the line was too long. Instead we went to a little bar in Sol called La Soberbia. We sat down at a table, I had a glass of wine, and we enjoyed ourselves until it closed and we had to leave to catch the last metro home.
This was the first day that I took the Renfe to UC3 alone… all went well on both ways. I got there a little early, so I checked my email/facebook and went up to Spanish class. Monica taught us more about food and then shopping for clothes. Fatima continued teaching us about music, and I really liked one of the groups we listened to, Nena Daconte, I might buy some of their music - the rest were just ok. I was able to use the internet in the break to write some updates instead of going to the cafeteria since I brought my water bottle (the tap water here is great).
After class, Isabel gave us the first part of her orientation – info about classes at UC3, living with a host family, and alcohol consumption. Once Isabel gave us the material about the Estudios Hispanicos classes, everyone went crazy worrying about what they were going to take. I just figured I’d wait for my advising session rather than speculate.
We then went to the cafeteria for lunch with Juanjo and a couple of other intercambio students from Spain. The food was ok, you know, cafeteria food, but it was funny because I asked what the vegetarian entrée was and she said the tortilla de vegetales. Yet, as soon as I bit into it, I could taste it had ham in it (it wasn’t good either). This is a funny thing I read might happen here…that they don’t consider ham to be meat and they put it in everything! So I ate my spinach soup and salad. We wound up speaking English most of the time, since they all wanted to practice with us. This is something else I think is funny, it happened to me a bunch in Ecuador and Guatemala… as soon as someone knows you speak English, they’d rather practice with you than let you speak Spanish. The girls I was sitting by gave me a hard time too because I was attracting attention from the male intercambio students… William sat next to me for a while and we talked about politics, which was interesting because he was pro-Bush/Iraq War. Maybe it wasn’t something we should have been talking about at our first meeting, but whatever, it’s always entertaining to hear what people think about that subject in particular and it definitely got everyone talking. We talked about sports too.
They kicked us out of the cafeteria area, but we went downstairs for café because we still had time to kill before leaving… we were going to the movies later. Most of the intercambio students left us then, and I sat with mostly my new friends from Marist. This was good because I got to know them better, about Poughkeepsie, Marist, their lives, etc. One of the intercambio guys Fernando went with us to the movies (again the girls and I giggled because he was paying me a lot of attention at first). We went on the bus and then the metro to an eastern part of the city I have yet to explore. Then we had to power walk for about 10 minutes because we were late, and even though it was cold, by the time we got to the theater I was sweaty.
The movie we saw was called La Mujer de Anarquia (The Wife of Anarchy), which was the story of a woman during and after the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. I understood most of what was going on, until the end and it got confusing, but Isabel clarified it for us afterward. I thought it was a good movie, plus it was an entertaining way to learn more about this time in Spanish history that dictates a lot of how they operate now. (It helped a lot later when we were at the Reina Sofia museum too)
When I got home, it was perfect timing because Natasha and Teresa were just sitting down for dinner. We talked about how the next day another girl was coming to live with us. Teresa called her “la chinita” because she’s Chinese (she doesn’t call her that to her face though). I also learned that she’d be staying in Natasha’s room because Stetson’s policy says that students living in home stays aren’t allowed to share rooms – so I’m definitely thankful for that ! Natasha also invited me to go out with her that night – I figured, why not?
So after dinner we got ready for what she told me was a “red, yellow, or green” party. I wore the only thing I had clean in those colors, my red knit dress.We left to get to the club at 11:30 and miraculously found the place… when we were walking down what we hoped was the right street, we saw the line and her friends. Her friends happened to be all guys, from the Netherlands and one German, Lukas. At this point in time I learned that the party was actually traffic light themed in a club that caters toward Americans (Dan told me later that they have them at Marist and he thinks they’re stupid). They gave me a hard time for not understanding the theme and wearing red, which means “I’m not available,” but I think would’ve probably been the best choice anyway to not attract unwanted attention. I say would’ve because we never actually went to the club, the line was too long. Instead we went to a little bar in Sol called La Soberbia. We sat down at a table, I had a glass of wine, and we enjoyed ourselves until it closed and we had to leave to catch the last metro home.
Day 3
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
This was the morning I realized that I would have the same morning routine, most likely the whole time I’m here – muesli cereal with yogurt or toast – since Teresa isn’t up most of the time…and that’s perfectly fine with me.
We had our group meeting at 9:30 am again, but this time at the bus station at Plaza Eliptica so that Isabel could show us how to get to school on the bus. For me it’s better to use the train, but I went anyway since I figured learning an alternate route to school wouldn’t hurt. It’s also mostly underground, so I might use it on days that are really rainy.
At 10am our crash course in Spanish started. First with Monica, then after a coffee break, we learned with Fatima. Monica reviewed the use of Usted versus tu and some basic food vocabulary and phrases. Fatima started her three-day long mini-course on Spanish music. After class, a representative from Morocco Exchange came to talk to us about the program. Unfortunately Stetson doesn’t include this trip in our expenses like Marist does, but I’m going anyway (I spent a few days texting/emailing Mom about it). It seems like it will be a really awesome experience considering the point is to familiarize Americans and Middle Easterners with each other, not tourism. It will definitely be different than the afternoon we spent in Tangier last summer, which was probably the most touristy-feeling trip I’ve ever taken!
I wanted to use the internet downstairs after this, but when I arrived, I realized that I didn’t know my usario. I thought that it might be on my UC3 ID card, and it actually is, but I was dumb and didn’t try the correct number, since it looked wrong to me… oh well. I was upset about this as I was walking off campus and so I walked in what I thought was the right direction. About halfway down that street I realized it wasn’t the correct one. I thought I was supposed to be on the street to my right, so I figured I’d just walk to the next corner and take a right… well that wasn’t for a while… and then I was really out of the way… and then once I thought I was on the right street I realized I was wrong! So indeed I had my first experience being lost. Somehow I walked in a giant square back to the university, which was good since I could re-orient myself from there. I almost went down the wrong street again, but didn’t, and finally found the correct one.
By the time I got to the train station, I’d been walking for a good 45 minutes – my exercise for the day. Teresa was a little worried that I was late coming home, but then over lunch we laughed about me getting lost. I resisted taking a nap, and instead watched TV with Teresa and then Natasha when she got home from the Prado. I still went to bed early that night though… not yet over my exhaustion.
This was the morning I realized that I would have the same morning routine, most likely the whole time I’m here – muesli cereal with yogurt or toast – since Teresa isn’t up most of the time…and that’s perfectly fine with me.
We had our group meeting at 9:30 am again, but this time at the bus station at Plaza Eliptica so that Isabel could show us how to get to school on the bus. For me it’s better to use the train, but I went anyway since I figured learning an alternate route to school wouldn’t hurt. It’s also mostly underground, so I might use it on days that are really rainy.
At 10am our crash course in Spanish started. First with Monica, then after a coffee break, we learned with Fatima. Monica reviewed the use of Usted versus tu and some basic food vocabulary and phrases. Fatima started her three-day long mini-course on Spanish music. After class, a representative from Morocco Exchange came to talk to us about the program. Unfortunately Stetson doesn’t include this trip in our expenses like Marist does, but I’m going anyway (I spent a few days texting/emailing Mom about it). It seems like it will be a really awesome experience considering the point is to familiarize Americans and Middle Easterners with each other, not tourism. It will definitely be different than the afternoon we spent in Tangier last summer, which was probably the most touristy-feeling trip I’ve ever taken!
I wanted to use the internet downstairs after this, but when I arrived, I realized that I didn’t know my usario. I thought that it might be on my UC3 ID card, and it actually is, but I was dumb and didn’t try the correct number, since it looked wrong to me… oh well. I was upset about this as I was walking off campus and so I walked in what I thought was the right direction. About halfway down that street I realized it wasn’t the correct one. I thought I was supposed to be on the street to my right, so I figured I’d just walk to the next corner and take a right… well that wasn’t for a while… and then I was really out of the way… and then once I thought I was on the right street I realized I was wrong! So indeed I had my first experience being lost. Somehow I walked in a giant square back to the university, which was good since I could re-orient myself from there. I almost went down the wrong street again, but didn’t, and finally found the correct one.
By the time I got to the train station, I’d been walking for a good 45 minutes – my exercise for the day. Teresa was a little worried that I was late coming home, but then over lunch we laughed about me getting lost. I resisted taking a nap, and instead watched TV with Teresa and then Natasha when she got home from the Prado. I still went to bed early that night though… not yet over my exhaustion.
Day 2
Monday, January 26, 2009
I woke up around 5:15 am. Unfortunately, I didn’t really get back to sleep before I got up around 8am. I got ready and Teresa helped me find breakfast, muesli cereal with yogurt.
Then I walked to the Ministerio de Agricultura to meet with the group again. Isabel taught us how to get to school on the train from there, so we went from Atocha station on the Renfe to the university. Thankfully, I also had learned how to use the Renfe while I was in Spain last summer. From the Las Margaritas station it’s about a 10 minute walk to the campus of Universidad Carlos Tercero or UC3.
Isabel gave us a tour of the campus, not too difficult to maneuver, and I cherished every moment we were inside – it was freezing! We went up to our classroom for the week and a lady from Piccell Wireless came and talked to us. This was great since my cell phone was still locked and I hadn’t been able to get in contact with my family yet. I signed up for the rebate program along with my SIM card, so that I could get a phone made to work in Europe that I could use immediately. Then I sent Mom a text message.
We had a little more tour left after that session, plus we had to set up our university accounts in the computer lab… I wanted nothing more than to go on the internet, but couldn’t. Around 1:30 we took the bus home (this was bad for me the next day since we didn’t walk from UC3 to the train station). I got home, ate lunch, and went to take a nap. I set my alarm for 3:30 since that’s when Natasha was getting home and I wanted to maybe go sightsee with her.
I ignored it when it went off… woke up around 6pm and thought about getting up for like 3 seconds but didn’t… woke up around 10pm and thought, well shit I might as well just sleep through the night. Teresa cam in around 12:30 and asked if I was okay, she and Natasha were worried about me! She gave me a glass of milk and I went to take my contacts out. I also took one of my Relax and Sleep pills, since I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to sleep more. Again I woke up and wasn’t able to go back to sleep around 5:15 am. I did sleep for 15 hours though.
I woke up around 5:15 am. Unfortunately, I didn’t really get back to sleep before I got up around 8am. I got ready and Teresa helped me find breakfast, muesli cereal with yogurt.
Then I walked to the Ministerio de Agricultura to meet with the group again. Isabel taught us how to get to school on the train from there, so we went from Atocha station on the Renfe to the university. Thankfully, I also had learned how to use the Renfe while I was in Spain last summer. From the Las Margaritas station it’s about a 10 minute walk to the campus of Universidad Carlos Tercero or UC3.
Isabel gave us a tour of the campus, not too difficult to maneuver, and I cherished every moment we were inside – it was freezing! We went up to our classroom for the week and a lady from Piccell Wireless came and talked to us. This was great since my cell phone was still locked and I hadn’t been able to get in contact with my family yet. I signed up for the rebate program along with my SIM card, so that I could get a phone made to work in Europe that I could use immediately. Then I sent Mom a text message.
We had a little more tour left after that session, plus we had to set up our university accounts in the computer lab… I wanted nothing more than to go on the internet, but couldn’t. Around 1:30 we took the bus home (this was bad for me the next day since we didn’t walk from UC3 to the train station). I got home, ate lunch, and went to take a nap. I set my alarm for 3:30 since that’s when Natasha was getting home and I wanted to maybe go sightsee with her.
I ignored it when it went off… woke up around 6pm and thought about getting up for like 3 seconds but didn’t… woke up around 10pm and thought, well shit I might as well just sleep through the night. Teresa cam in around 12:30 and asked if I was okay, she and Natasha were worried about me! She gave me a glass of milk and I went to take my contacts out. I also took one of my Relax and Sleep pills, since I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to sleep more. Again I woke up and wasn’t able to go back to sleep around 5:15 am. I did sleep for 15 hours though.
Arrival in Madrid
Sunday, January 25, 2009
I arrived in Spain at 8:20 in the morning. Having not slept on the plane, I was extremely tired, but too excited to really feel it. My brain definitely wasn’t working though, because I wound up misplacing my passport and spending 15 minutes looking for it before I could go through immigration. I kept thinking about one of the last flights that I took in Spain when I lost my bracelet. I was also trying to get my cell phone to work so I could let the family know I was in Spain safely. Alas, it didn’t work because T-Mobile didn’t give me the unlock code I needed to use a foreign SIM card when I asked them how to use my phone abroad. I felt a little, isolated in the world. Everything else was fine after that though. My luggage came relatively swiftly and I went out through customs to meet Isabel and Juan Jose (Juanjo). Claire hadn’t yet emerged, and her flight arrived almost an hour before mine, so we went off searching for her.
I looked for her with Juanjo, so I got to know him a little bit. He’s studying at Stetson next semester, so we talked a lot about Florida and how we’re going to be neighbors. We didn’t find Claire, but Isabel did wandering around the luggage area. Next, we had to pick up Kristina and Megan at another terminal, so we loaded up the van and headed over. While Isabel waited for them, we ate breakfast, which for me was a tostada with salsa de tomate y aciete and a café con leche. When we were done we met up with Kristina and Megan, loaded the van, and headed off with Juanjo to Madrid. It was raining and cold, but I was really hot from being so emocionada. My casa was first on the list.
Juanjo helped get out my stuff and we met Teresa at the door. I think I must have taken a huge sigh of relief when I met her, my first impression of her was a good one. She showed me to the apt, up the elevator to the 5th floor, last door down the hall, #7, then around the apt, which is small, and to my room. I was worried my room was going to be really small, but thank goodness it’s a good size, plus it has a fantastic view of the city, train station, and a little square with a big obelisk in it. There is also another bedroom where at the time Natasha was sleeping, the bathroom we share, the salon (which also could function as the dining room, but we don’t eat there), a room where Teresa works as a beautician, another bathroom that she uses, and the kitchen. It’s all connected by a long hallway.
After the tour, I started unloading my stuff and met Natasha, who was headed off to church. When I set up my computer I realized there was no internet available at all, not even to steal. Even though I knew that Teresa didn’t have internet, I was still disappointed, and felt even more cut off from the world. When I was finished unloading my stuff, I took a shower, and took a nap. The shower is very interesting. The wall mount is broken, and Teresa asked that I turn the water off when soaping up, so it’s more like a self-rinse. With the objective of saving water it’s perfect, and I think I will probably continue showering like that when I get back to the states. I woke up for lunch, which was lentil soup. Mom should be proud that Teresa serves a lot of lentils and legumes so that I can get all my protein. I had my first semi-conversation with Natasha, since her Spanish is pretty rough, and learned that she’s from Houston, goes to Arizona State, doesn’t study at the same school in Madrid as me, and is turning 21 on Feb 20th – just two weeks after me (she’s not an Aquarius though).
After lunch, I got ready to brave the cold and left the apt with Teresa and Natasha to go to the Ministerio de Agricultura to meet with Isabel and my group. We all gradually arrived and I talked to or met most everyone from our Stetson-Marist group. There are six girls from Stetson - me, Megan Duffy, Jackie Matias, Kristina Tulak, Brittany McCloud, and Claire Armangnac. Thank goodness there are two guys in the Marist group, Dan and Chris, because there are seven girls too – Liz, Jamiee, Emily and Emily, Audra, Stephanie, and Jennifer (who’s studying here for the 2nd semester). When everyone was ready, our senoras left, and we headed off for a “tour” of the metro.
Last summer, I learned how to use European metros, but it was good to get re-acclimated. We went to Plaza de Espana, where I have a picture by the Don Quixote statue with my sisters, all of us waving Spain flags, or wearing them. From there we walked to Templo Debod and the park with a vista over the city and took lots of pictures. We continued our walking tour past the Palacio Real to Plaza Mayor via Calle del Codo , where Isabel told us about the nuns who sell cookies through a revolving door since no one is allowed to see them (they took a vow). From Plaza Mayor we walked to Puerta del Sol and down a side street to Chocoloteria San Ginez (it’s very famous), where we sat outside in the freezing cold to eat churros con chocolate, a typical Spanish dessert or breakfast.
We were free to go after that, so Natasha and I took the metro home. Thankfully she was with me, since I didn’t have keys yet and didn’t really know the way home. Some of the other students got really lost that night. By that time I was exhausted, so we watched TV a little, but I went to sleep around 9pm.
I arrived in Spain at 8:20 in the morning. Having not slept on the plane, I was extremely tired, but too excited to really feel it. My brain definitely wasn’t working though, because I wound up misplacing my passport and spending 15 minutes looking for it before I could go through immigration. I kept thinking about one of the last flights that I took in Spain when I lost my bracelet. I was also trying to get my cell phone to work so I could let the family know I was in Spain safely. Alas, it didn’t work because T-Mobile didn’t give me the unlock code I needed to use a foreign SIM card when I asked them how to use my phone abroad. I felt a little, isolated in the world. Everything else was fine after that though. My luggage came relatively swiftly and I went out through customs to meet Isabel and Juan Jose (Juanjo). Claire hadn’t yet emerged, and her flight arrived almost an hour before mine, so we went off searching for her.
I looked for her with Juanjo, so I got to know him a little bit. He’s studying at Stetson next semester, so we talked a lot about Florida and how we’re going to be neighbors. We didn’t find Claire, but Isabel did wandering around the luggage area. Next, we had to pick up Kristina and Megan at another terminal, so we loaded up the van and headed over. While Isabel waited for them, we ate breakfast, which for me was a tostada with salsa de tomate y aciete and a café con leche. When we were done we met up with Kristina and Megan, loaded the van, and headed off with Juanjo to Madrid. It was raining and cold, but I was really hot from being so emocionada. My casa was first on the list.
Juanjo helped get out my stuff and we met Teresa at the door. I think I must have taken a huge sigh of relief when I met her, my first impression of her was a good one. She showed me to the apt, up the elevator to the 5th floor, last door down the hall, #7, then around the apt, which is small, and to my room. I was worried my room was going to be really small, but thank goodness it’s a good size, plus it has a fantastic view of the city, train station, and a little square with a big obelisk in it. There is also another bedroom where at the time Natasha was sleeping, the bathroom we share, the salon (which also could function as the dining room, but we don’t eat there), a room where Teresa works as a beautician, another bathroom that she uses, and the kitchen. It’s all connected by a long hallway.
After the tour, I started unloading my stuff and met Natasha, who was headed off to church. When I set up my computer I realized there was no internet available at all, not even to steal. Even though I knew that Teresa didn’t have internet, I was still disappointed, and felt even more cut off from the world. When I was finished unloading my stuff, I took a shower, and took a nap. The shower is very interesting. The wall mount is broken, and Teresa asked that I turn the water off when soaping up, so it’s more like a self-rinse. With the objective of saving water it’s perfect, and I think I will probably continue showering like that when I get back to the states. I woke up for lunch, which was lentil soup. Mom should be proud that Teresa serves a lot of lentils and legumes so that I can get all my protein. I had my first semi-conversation with Natasha, since her Spanish is pretty rough, and learned that she’s from Houston, goes to Arizona State, doesn’t study at the same school in Madrid as me, and is turning 21 on Feb 20th – just two weeks after me (she’s not an Aquarius though).
After lunch, I got ready to brave the cold and left the apt with Teresa and Natasha to go to the Ministerio de Agricultura to meet with Isabel and my group. We all gradually arrived and I talked to or met most everyone from our Stetson-Marist group. There are six girls from Stetson - me, Megan Duffy, Jackie Matias, Kristina Tulak, Brittany McCloud, and Claire Armangnac. Thank goodness there are two guys in the Marist group, Dan and Chris, because there are seven girls too – Liz, Jamiee, Emily and Emily, Audra, Stephanie, and Jennifer (who’s studying here for the 2nd semester). When everyone was ready, our senoras left, and we headed off for a “tour” of the metro.
Last summer, I learned how to use European metros, but it was good to get re-acclimated. We went to Plaza de Espana, where I have a picture by the Don Quixote statue with my sisters, all of us waving Spain flags, or wearing them. From there we walked to Templo Debod and the park with a vista over the city and took lots of pictures. We continued our walking tour past the Palacio Real to Plaza Mayor via Calle del Codo , where Isabel told us about the nuns who sell cookies through a revolving door since no one is allowed to see them (they took a vow). From Plaza Mayor we walked to Puerta del Sol and down a side street to Chocoloteria San Ginez (it’s very famous), where we sat outside in the freezing cold to eat churros con chocolate, a typical Spanish dessert or breakfast.
We were free to go after that, so Natasha and I took the metro home. Thankfully she was with me, since I didn’t have keys yet and didn’t really know the way home. Some of the other students got really lost that night. By that time I was exhausted, so we watched TV a little, but I went to sleep around 9pm.
Monday, February 2, 2009
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