Un Semestre con los Madrileños

SIKE

2008-12-14T18:51:00.002+01:00

So we're still here. I won't be back in the U.S. until tomorrow now. This couldn't be any more frustrating or anti-climatic. I was looking forward so much to getting back to Hopkins and I was in full-fledged home mode. So what happened? Well, apparently the flight was changed from December 14th to December 15th by Iberia back in August before we even left for this trip. But the travel agency never alerted the Hopkins Study Abroad office to the change, so none of us knew. I am upset though that the office at Hopkins did not call to confirm ahead of time. The 10 of us that were planning to head back are now in an hotel close to the airport and we're going to give this another go around tomorrow. What a disaster. At least Hopkins is covering all the costs because I have not a single moneda of euros left. So new flight itinerary is for 4:10 tomorrow and I should be arriving at Dulles at 6:55 pm. I just want to go to bed now so that the night will pass by even faster and I can just get home.

Te dejo Madrid

2008-12-13T22:06:00.001+01:00

How fitting that Shakira has a song about leaving Madrid! It's finally here, my last night in Spain. Today was surprisingly relaxed. I woke up sort of ridiculously late - at 1 pm - and then went out to do some last minute souvenir shopping in the rain (gross!). Now I'm sitting in my room packing everything up but it's not nearly as bad as packing to come here was. I guess it's because I already know what I have to bring with me and it's all right here. I don't have to pick and choose between clothes and shoes. Speaking of, I'm officially throwing away three pairs of shoes that have gotten absolutely trashed. It feels good to have a little extra space for the stuff I bought in my suitcase. And to compensate I got myself a cheap pair of ankle boots to wear home - only 19€!
I cannot wait at all to see everyone at home! I've missed you all so much. But now that I'm leaving I've realized that I'm going to miss my host mom a lot. As much as she's driven me nuts over the semester with her quirkiness, she's been great to have around and I've learned a lot from her. We exchanged email addresses today so that we could keep in touch. I know it's going to feel weird giving back my set of keys to her.
Ok, signing off for now. I'll be reachable by my normal phone number again once I get to the states. Plane lands at 7:20 pm in Dulles.

Catherine

¡Adivina que cenamos!

2008-12-09T22:32:00.006+01:00

It's taken some getting used to as far as the Spanish cuisine goes. There are some dishes that I absolutely love -- chicken paella, tortilla española, croquetas and other tapas. But some of it is a little...fishy...and at times literally. Sorry bad pun. But seriously, I've sat down before to a dinner of what looked like chicken nuggets with fish tails sticking out then ends only to learn that they were fried anchovies. I've eaten lumpy fish soup. And I'm not sure I'll ever really like cocido, which is at least three types of meat all in one dish. So when I sat down to dinner tonight and saw a peculiar looking pasta salad, I started preparing myself. Penne, tomatoes, tuna, corn, hard boild egg, and pineapple. It looked...interesting. And of course my plate was twice as full as my host mother's. I decided to figuratively poke my toe in the water instead of jumping in, and took a small bite. And it was...good?

Wait, actually? It is...it's...good!

SURPRISE! I guess Spain has finally taken a toll on my tastebuds. I doubt much else will phase me now. Maybe the next bowl of lumpy fish soup will actually taste like a little piece of heaven. Then again, I'm heading back so soon that I won't really have time to test that theory out...hopefully.

More music from Amaral

2008-12-08T21:03:00.001+01:00

My favorite Spanish band, followed by la Oreja de Van Gogh.

Still studying away here...sort of. I've been working on a paper all day and just finished, but what amounted to 2 hours worth of work was spread out between nearly 3 hour breaks perusing Youtube. At least tomorrow I know I'll make it out of the house because I need to hand in my short story for one class. Then it's off to Starbucks to study!

6 days left! Can't wait :)

This little piggy HASN'T gone to the market

2008-12-07T01:53:00.005+01:00

As I was getting ready for bed just now, I looked down at my feet and realized...that bit of chipped pink nail polish on my two big toes has been there since AUGUST.

NASTY.

I can remember sitting in my room procrastinating from packing. It must have been around August 20th, just a few days before I left to come here. I can't believe that I have let it sit there and slowly disappear as my nails grow for an entire semester. Apparently somewhere along all the traveling and commuting to classes I forgot to take five minutes to fix my feet.

So it's decided now. First thing I do when I get to Baltimore is find some nail polish remover. Well, maybe not first thing. First thing is hug my boyfriend. But then I'm running to CVS and buying nail polish remover.

Crunch time

2008-12-06T12:45:00.006+01:00

So this is my first official weekend staying in Madrid in over a month. I've been traveling every weekend before now. The countdown is T-8 days until I go back to Baltimore and 15 until I go back to Chicago. Finals period is from Tuesday to Thursday this week and after the unexpectedly long fiesta that Concha had at her house last night -- it left me smelling of smoke and still without a tick mark on my to-do list -- I'm starting to worry a little about getting everything done.

Honestly, I'm worn out. I'm ready to go back to Hopkins...at least back to campus to see everyone I miss. I'm not nearly as ready to start an intense spring semester. But no worries, we have all of January to prepare for that.

After the program trip to Andalucía, I spent weekends in Dublin (below is one of the main streets all decorated for Christmas), Paris, and London. I'm being a little stingy with the photo uploads right now mostly because I'm too impatient to wait for more to upload. Only one from each city.

London was absolutely amazing not only because it's a great city but also because I finally saw my Jenny for the first time since August. It made me realize just how much I really miss everyone at Hopkins.

And in the few days I had right before Thanksgiving, an old old friend from Wheaton came with her family to spend the holiday in Madrid. That made me realize how much I miss my Dad and brother and the old high school friends.

This was the best photo I had of Me, Paulina, and her sister Nellie. We spent a night eating tapas
and bar hopping in Chueca, one of the barrios of Madrid. We had another afternoon of delicious churro goodness at the famous Chocolatería San Ginés. The churros here are probably the number one reason I'll want to come back to Madrid eventually, once I'm old and have enough money to treat myself right.

So today I have to crank out a couple essays and make myself look all pretty this afternoon because at 7 pm I'm heading out to the Theater. I like to think of it as a cultural and educational way to procrastinate more much-needed studying. The theater trip is an optional one sponsored by Hopkins. We'll be seeing Las Manos Blancas no ofenden, written by Calderón de la Barca. It is apparently a very popular play from el Siglo de Oro (The Golden Age) and was most likely written in 1640. I have a little flyer I need to read to situate myself with the play because it's apparently going to be performed in Old Castellano. Fingers crossed that I'll understand some of what's going on.

Ok it's back to work for this lazy student.

Creimos en el rock and roll

2008-11-24T22:30:00.001+01:00

Amaral says it well. These cravings to live can't fit in just one song. And the confusion that you feel, I feel as well.

With all the confusion going on and being so far away from home, at least I've still got my rock and roll.

20 days left until I return to the States. This will be interesting.

Thank you to everyone who's been helping me through all the recent confusion.

You say potato, I say potaaato

2008-11-17T00:21:00.006+01:00

Every night at dinner, I sit and watch the evening news with my host mother. Politics is her soccer. When every other Spaniard is yelling at the TV screen because Raúl missed a goal, Concha is yelling at Mariano Rajoy for making another statement that isn't in line with her political affiliation. Anyway, we're sitting at dinner and a clip of Mariano Rajoy comes on. Concha yells at the TV ¡Cállate imbécil! and then turns to me and asks ¿Entiendes imbécil?

Seriously?

Seriously, I thought we had gotten past this. It was in September when she thought I needed reminding of the word famoso. It was in October when she was surprised I knew the structure "me caye bien" in reference to a person. By now I thought we had been having decent enough conversations that she wouldn't need to ask me if I knew basic words. So I turned to her and answered that yes, I do know the word imbecil...it's the same in English.

Here, There, and Everywhere

2008-11-14T12:46:00.011+01:00

...not only describes all the traveling that is taking up the entire month of November, but also my scattered brain. Between schoolwork, which as trivial as it is here still takes some time, traveling, dealing with issues from home, and a cold that just doesn't seem to want to go away, I have become the most absent-minded human. Ever. Today I walked in and out of the apartment 3 times before I finally had everything I needed to get to my Arte class at the Museo de Sorolla. I forgot my note on what metro to stop at, my abono for the metro, and my map.
Right now I'm trying to wrap up a few more things before heading off to Dublin in a couple hours. More to come on that trip later.
The past two weeks I traveled more within Spain, specifically to Barcelona, Granada, and Córdoba. The trip to Granada and Córdoba was a planned one for the entire program.
What I realized was that, just as my Política y Sociedad professor has explained, every portion of Spain is very distinct. Not only does each province have its own offical language
besides castellano, but the atmosphere of each is especially different from the rest. Madrid is much like any other city in many ways. Every time I walk down the street just outside the metro stop nearby my host mother's house, I think that this particular street could really exist anywhere from New York to Tokoyo. Ok, I'm only guessing about it looking like a boring old street in Tokoyo...I've never actually been there. Barcelona was in some ways very similar to Madrid, and considering it's one of the other most important cities in Spain (at least tourist-wise), this makes sense. The major difference that I saw was that Barcelona, mainly through the influence of Gaudí, is much more estetically modern whereas Madrid I find to be much more traditional in many aspects. Just compare the buildings around the Paseo del Prado to the different houses built by Gaudí, or the Parque de Retiro to Parc Grüel, or Catedral de Almudena to La Sagrada Familia.

Granada and Córdoba, or at least the small portions of the cities that I saw, were distinctly more ancient feeling. The Arabic influence in La Alhambra and La Mezquita de Córdoba date back significantly further than any of the buildings in Madrid or Barcelona. I loved the atmosphere of Andalucía especially because of this feeling of antiquity. There also just seemed to be more of a sense of passion and mystery in the culture there compared to that of Madrid. I'm thinking particularly in the tradition of Flamenco. There were guitarists and women with castanets playing on the streets of Granada and Córdoba that you wouldn't find in Madrid. The street musicians of Madrid have progressed to electric keyboards and guitars, and blast the sounds of their own voices through the metro stations with amplifiers. The air in the south of Spain also just felt so much crisper and cleaner than the air in Madrid. Maybe it's attributed to the mountains, I don't really know. But whatever it is, I really prefer the quaintness and the greeness of the south as opposed to the more developed atmosphere of Madrid.

Election day from abroad

2008-11-05T19:59:00.006+01:00

What a night. I stayed up with a number of friends on our trip at the Democrats Abroad election party to watch the results. Time difference between here and California means we didn't go to bed until 7 am in order to see that phrase flash across CNN: "Obama elected president." And even though I was absolutely exhausted all day today and missed the first 30 minutes of my 1 pm class, I've got to say it was entirely worth it. The most tense part of the night was probably when the sound gave out on the speaker system in the middle of Obama's acceptance speech, but even missing those few moments, I have to say it was still very inspirational.

Mike showing off his Obama pride

One of my favorite videos the past three weeks has been of the Ron Clark Academy students showing that they know more than many ignorant voters out there, and can prove it in style!

Then today I read this article about an apparently disasterous celebration at our very own JHU. I'm completely shocked. Puts a bit of a damper on the celebration, that's for sure.

The party we went to was probably just as rambunctions in some areas of the several stories it covered in the building, and actually included many more Spaniards than I expected. My host mother is extatic that Obama won, as are many other Spaniards I've heard talking about it. I just can't believe how involved they are in U.S. politics. I can't say that I know nearly as many Americans who are just as invested in foreign elections or politics. But we're all smiles here, saying ¡sí se puede!

La Fe Católica en España

2008-10-26T15:22:00.005+01:00

Yesterday we took a group trip to El Escorial and La Valle de los Caídos. Let me just preface this with saying that I did not realize that we would be visiting Franco's tomb yesterday. I thought we were just going on a quick trip to see the monastary at El Escorial.

El Escorial was really very beautiful, and I was pretty upset when my camera died as soon as I turned it on. I bought the guidebook after our visit since I don't have any of my own pictures. What I didn't realize before about El Escorial was that it is not only a monastary. It's actually a royal palace that also includes a monastary, church, school, and library. To me it was like a microcosm between the Church and the Royal Family. Within the library were frescos personifying Filosofía, representing the sciences, and Teología, representing the Church. That and the proximity of the royal palace and the church showed historical Spanish ideals that are very different from American ideals of separation of church and state. Seeing this particular palace/monastary made me wonder just how well church and state could potentially work together under the right circumstances.

La Valle de los Caídos on the other hand showed just how sour the combination of church and state could be. As a monument towards the victims of the Spanish Civil War, La Valle de los Caídos was designed by Franco and built by political prisoners' hands. It is the only example of Facist architecture like it. Beneath the 500 foot cross is a basilica and an abbey, where monks apparently still live today. The inside of the basilica was like walking into a horror movie. Everything about the architecture, the darkness, the dripping of the granite, reminded me of death. The walls were remarkably bare compared to any other church or cathedral I have seen so far in Europe. The rows of statues along either wall of the main hall were terrifying to look at. Their heads hung down, covered in hooded cloaks that covered their eyes and faces. It was austere to say the least. Across from Franco's tomb is the tomb of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the Falange party to which Franco belonged.
As our group headed in, I noticed a family walking in carrying a child and a white baptismal gown. I cannot believe that there are still Franquistas who support his dictatorship enough to want to baptize their children in this basilica or to get married there. I was also shocked to learn that mass is performed regularly there and that monks live in the abbey. This monument was built by a facist dictator who killed countless people, and the entire church was built by prisoners of war who were told that they could redeem themselves through manual labor. How on earth can the Catholic church support something that is tied to all of that? I wonder if it is really directly connected to the Catholic church or if it is run by a sect that is not recognized by the Vatican, much like how Opus Dei is not recognized by the Church although they claim to be a part of it. It's an unsettling thing to think about.

This morning I actually managed to get my lazy butt out of bed and went to mass at la Catedral de Almudena, the cathedral adjacent to the Palacio Real de Madrid.

A photo I took during a previous tour of the Cathedral

I walked in just as the opening hymn was starting and realized that if I had wanted to get a better seat, I really should have left my host's apartment much earlier. It was packed with people. Whereas mass at St. Petronille Parish, where I attended mass every Sunday growing up, is much more participatory, the mass at Almudena was more of a spectacle. Tourists were walking in and out of the cathedral during the entire mass. People attending mass would stand up and walk out randomly. No one sang with the chorus, nor were there hymnals to read along with the gospel or the hymns. The priest who gave the homily spoke into a microphone, and his voice echoed to the point of nearly being indistinguishable through the cathedral. He spoke of the economic crisis in Spain and the rest of the world and the importance of not forgetting your fellow man or God in such a crisis. It was a simple but important message.
After one man, presumably a tourist, left the seat next to me in the pew, a group of three nuns came and sat next to me. This was the first time I've ever sat next to a nun or shaken one's hand, which I did during the offering of the sign of peace before the Eucharist. That alone was an amazing experience. Although I couldn't follow along with all the responses to the priest, since I don't know the translations (not everything translates exactly), it was nice to listen to the three nuns recite certain prayers and responses. All in Spanish of course. During the offering of peace, whereas in English we say "peace be with you," these nuns simply said "la paz." I noticed a number of minor differences between the mass I'm used to and this one that were sort of interesting.
In my Política y Sociedad class, we've learned that although the present population of Spain considers Spain a primarily Catholic country, very few people actually attend mass regularly. While 76.6% of 2462 spaniards interviewed in 2007 considered themselves Catholic, 55.3% of 1932 answered that they almost never went to mass or other oficial religious occasions (not including more social ceremonies such as weddings, first communions, and funerals). After going to mass this morning, I would have to say that the majority of people there looked like tourists to me. Some stayed for the entire length of the mass, others poked their heads in and then left after just a moment. One woman sitting next to me was obviously spanish and familiar with the rituals because she spoke nearly every word of the prayers, but she too left just after the Eucharist without going up herself to receive the body of Christ. And though it seems that democratic government has taken over the influence that the Church once had, the Church still holds much more power in Spain than it ever has in the U.S.

Fumar Mata

2008-10-14T21:43:00.000+02:00

I am never really going to get over the ridiculous number of smokers in Spain. In Madrid particularly. Considering that it is now almost a decade into the 21st century, and that great strides have been made in health research and the prolongation of life, I would think that more people would choose not to smoke. Or at the very least not with such frequency.
Smokers' sections in public are a joke here. When we left from the airport on our way to Rome, the smokers' section was a boxed off area with no door, which allowed just as much smoke to fill the air as would not having a smokers' section at all. Especially when people stood in the doorway, facing out. Effective.
Imagine a restaurant in any big city in the U.S. before the ban on public smoking. Now multiply that by 30 more cigarettes per smoker times 20 more smokers per 50 square feet. Then you're just getting close to how foul the streets and restaurants of Madrid smell from it all.
Usually cigarette smoke just gives me a bit of a headache. Sometimes it cranks up the asthma a little. But never have I felt faint or ended up with a migraine from being around smoke until I came here.
Today I came home from classes and walked into the apartment where I'm living. My host mother had left all the windows open to keep the air circulating. Unfortunately, some inconsiderate soul had decided to finish what smelled like 5 packs down on one of the lower floors because it had all wafted up to the top floor and settled in nearly every room of the apartment.
I've also noticed that here, people don't seem to have the same basic courtesies when it comes to smoking. (Though the biggest courtesy would be to not light up in the first place.) They don't try particularly hard to blow the smoke in any direction other than the face of the person sitting next to them. Nor do they keep in the habit of putting out their cigarettes before throwing them on the ground.
What I find most ironic of all is that the packs here literally say "smoking kills." You don't see that in the States. Of course we have our version of a health warning from the Surgeon General, but we don't go as far as to advertise the mantra that smoking kills. It hasn't seemed to have much of an effect on the population in Spain. I wonder what it might do for Americans.
All kidding aside, I'm going to want to have my lungs checked out after being exposed to this much second hand smoke. Seriously one of the things I really miss the most about the U.S. is that you can go to a restaurant and not have to gag from the cloud surrounding your head in between bites of food. I'm never going to understand the desire to tar up your lungs to the extent that goes on here.

Absentee Ballot Nightmares

2008-10-13T23:46:00.007+02:00

This is the first presidential election since I've turned 18, and I want more than anything to be able to vote in it, simply as a matter of principle. I don't claim to know much about politics, I'm a registered Independent, I usually prefer to talk about anything else under the sun besides politics, BUT I know that as a U.S. citizen it is my duty to vote. Ever since taking American Government and Politics my junior year of high school, I have had it beaten into my head just how vital it is to vote as soon as you're eligible to register. And with phenomenons like Rock the Vote, there's really no getting by with claiming to not care enough to vote or to not know enough to vote. True, I don't know as much as I should about the inner workings of our government system. I should dedicate more of my time to learning more. But that in itself is not a sufficient reason to not watch the political debates (on youtube if that's the only way I can) and to try to come to the best decision I can regarding the candidates and then to fill out that ballot and send it in.
But by God is the process confusing! Registering for my absentee ballot was a mess. It definitely didn't help that I was a little too lax about the timing of it all. And it only gets more annoying that I have no direct access to a printer, and absolutely no access to a fax machine. So it came down to forwarding an email to my Dad so he could hand in a preliminary form for me, which I then still had to print out and mail. And now comes the sitting and waiting for my ballot to come in the mail. And the worrying that it'll get lost and won't arrive and that I'll just be one more lazy American who couldn't get her stuff together in time for the election.
I am glad that since coming on this program, politics has become more important to me than it was before. By far. Maybe taking the Política y Sociedad class at Carlos Tercero has helped me to understand America's relation with the rest of the world better (even though the focus of that class is on Spanish government). But the contrast alone has been enlightening. And even though the professor for the class is a total nut job and entirely disorganized in her lecture plans, I have learned a lot more than I would have if I had just stuck to Art and Literature.
I should also probably attribute a great deal of my blooming interest in modern politics to Mike, who has an infectious affinity for them. Thanks, Mike.
So, here's hoping that I did my civil duty correctly and didn't make any mistakes on that registration form. And if I seriously did mess it up this time around, then in four more years I'm not going to let it happen again. And by then it'll hopefully be much easier, since I'll actually be in the States.

Whoever thought of sightseeing all of Rome in 42 hours?

2008-10-13T20:32:00.007+02:00

The group with delicious gelato

A group of five crazy Johns Hopkins students in Madrid and two from Paris, that's who. We left Madrid just after art class Friday afternoon and were back (tired and in desperate need of showers and sleep) by just around 6 pm on Sunday.
The first night we stopped at our hostel and headed out in search of a place to eat and ended up passing the Colosseum. It hit me then just how bizarre it was to be heading out for dinner, passing buses and cars on busy streets, and to walk past a structure that is nearly 2000 years old. We ate an amazing meal at a restaurant nearby. It's true what they say about Italian food. And now that I've tried actual food from Italy, I can say without a doubt that it's my favorite type of cuisine.

Then we set out on our epic journey of non-stop touring and next to no sleep. In that first night we walked to Piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps, and Trevi Fountain, which was absolutely amazing. We could hear the water from around the corner, and really weren't expecting anything especially significant. We were all pretty tired at this point and just wanted to crash in bed. And then we turned the corner and saw the most amazing sight. I probably took 30 pictures of the Fountain alone, trying to capture every bit of it, and then decided to just take a video of it. Seeing the fountain seriously made the entire night worth the walk.

Trevi Fountain

The Colosseum

Day two, we woke up at 7 am and hit the road by 8. This time we went into the Colosseum, Palatine, the Roman Forum, and then kept going on to the Pantheon, back to the Spanish Steps (which were so much more impressive during the day), and onto the Vatican and St. Angelo's Castle. The Vatican was gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. I am so glad that I got the chance to go.
Inside St. Peter's Bascilica

We went to the Vatican Museum just after visiting St. Peter's Bascilica, and saw the Sistine Chapel as well. The Chapel itself was breathtaking. Really, you can't say anything bad when it comes to Michaelangelo, but I was disappointed with the atmosphere created by the tourists and the security guards who were making way too much noise. The tourists would talk, it'd get steadily louder, and then the guards would sush them even louder. And there was an unending stream of shouting "NO FOTO" from the guards. When they turned on a recording over a loudspeaker reminding everyone to be silent, I had just about had it. That was really the only part of the trip I wish had been improved.

We stopped for lunch at Taverna Le Coppelle, a pizzeria that my host mother recommended. It was delicious. Seriously. That night we ate out again and I have never been so excited to order spaghetti in my life. I was expecting a big let down coming back to Spanish cuisine after this weekend. All I'm really going to say about my dinner last night is that I really prefer pasta to fish soup.
We went out to Campo de' Fiori Saturday night where there were a lot of bars and a much younger crowd out in the streets. I have yet to find something like that in Madrid. It only got better when we got wine and gelato, two of my most favorite things in the world.
Sunday morning was another early one, but it was totally worth it because we managed to fit in sightseeing around the Jewish Quarter of the city and the Baths of Caracalla before leaving for our 1:45 flight.
The Italians were really very nice. It says a lot that you always hear "scusi" when someone bumps into you on the metro there and that when someone rams into you on the train in Spain, you're lucky if you get a "perdón." Even our crazy waiter the first night was very helpful in explaining parts of the map to us and telling us where the best bars were.
All I've got to say about Rome is that I am so very jealous that my friend Sophia will be studying abroad there all next semester. Soph -- you're going to LOVE it. And I know now that it is absolutely necessary to return and see it all again at a much easier pace. And to include the rest of Italy on my itinerary the second time around.

Toledo

2008-10-08T22:50:00.021+02:00

Two weekends ago we took a group trip to Toledo. What was described in our coursebooks as a "day trip." Now, I don't know about you, but when I think of a day trip, I expect that trip to last the entire day. Not true with this crew though. Our bus left at the ungodly hour of 9 in the morning on a Saturday, meaning I had to be up by 7...which quickly became 8 because I am the farthest from being a morning person. So after rushing to the bus, I was looking forward to a little nap on the trip. But the second we sat down, our tour guide whipped out a microphone and began our morning with a short history of Toledo. Beginning with the Romans and the Visigoths. It all would have been fine with me if we hadn't rushed through a three hour tour of four of the city's many sites, had to sit through an hour and a half three course lunch, were allowed only 20 minutes of souvenir shopping, and herded onto the bus to return to Madrid no later than 4:30 in the afternoon. Apparently this was only an "introduction" to Toledo.
I would have much preferred getting a tad more sleep on my Saturday, eaten a quick little picnic, and stayed for dinner, heading back to Madrid as late as 11 pm. But oh well, some day when I run Hopkins study abroad programs....

We first went to the Monastario San Juan de la Cruz, built during Ferdinand and Isabel's reign. I was really impressed with the little chapel inside and the inscriptions on the arches on the second floor, "Fanto Monta, Monta Fanto," a the marraige phrase signifying that Ferdinand and Isabel were equal.

"Tanto Monta"

I also absolutely loved the garden in the courtyard of the monastary. Living in a city like Madrid makes you appreciate some greenery.

We then moved onto the Sinagogoa de Santa Maria la Blanca. This being my first time in a synagoge, I didn't really know what to expect. But when one of my Jewish friends gasped as soon as we entered, "This isn't a synagogue, there's a cross! What is this place?" I really didn't know what to think. We learned that it was built during Christain reign, by Islamic hands, for the use of Jews. I suppose you can either choose to see it as a great culmination of three religions, or as something a little more negative. Like a lot of the synagogues I've heard about here, it later became a church. Now it's a museum. Pictures weren't allowed inside, but thanks to internet image searches I can still show the archs that were inside the synagogue/church. It definitely does look more like a mosque than either a synagogue or a church to me.We went on a quick visit then to the Entierro del Conde de Orgaz, or El Greco, which really wasn't as interesting as I had hoped. And then we moved on to Santa Iglesia Catedral Primada, the largest cathedral in Toledo. And it was overwhelming to say the least. There was more visual stimulation in that one cathedral than I think I've experienced over the course of my entire life. Imagine every artistic style possible and every area of influence, multiply that by gold, jewels, wooden carvings, frescos, and more, and if I might before God smites me...a little bit of tacky...there you have it. It was definitely interesting to see, I'm just pretty sure I'm in need of a check up with my optomitrist now. The outside wasn't nearly as overwhelming despite the fact that it's of the gothic style. Again, no pictures were allowed inside, but you actually might be more thankful for that than not.
And then that marked the end of our double-time tour of Toledo. We spent forever on an unneccesarily exquisite lunch and then were herded like sheep onto the bus. When one of my friends dared to ask the tour guide if he could run to the rest room before we left, she rolled her eyes at him and reminded him that he had just had a twenty minute break after lunch ended. Needless to say, we were all out of sorts by the time we got back.

So fast forward a week, four of us decided to go back to Toledo for another day trip, and this time do it right. We wanted first of all to see a real synagogue, to see a mosque, and were really looking forward to going inside the Alcázar and the Casa y Museo del Greco, which were both unfortunately closed for renovations.
We did get to go to the Sinagoga del Transito, which was absolutely beautiful. And I felt like I got a real lesson in Judaism instead of what I learned from our trip to the Muslim-built synagogue turned church. Nevermind the fact that after the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, this too was turned into a church. It's since been restored and is celebrated as a synagogue and not as a Catholic church. The walls were ornate, but not as overwhelming as those in the cathedral.
The museum portion was also amazing. I die for ancient scrolls and relics. Especially when they come with poetry on the plaques.

Our last tour was of the Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz (named after the street it was built on, not after a Muslim turned Catholic convert). It was under reconstruction, so we walked over metal planks to see the inside, but it was still absolutely amazing. First time I've ever seen graffiti in Arabic.

Painting on the ceiling

Graffiti in Arabic

Much of Toledo reminded me of Salamanca: the small winding streets, the sense of antiquity, the ability to walk from one side of the city to the other. I love touring through ancient small cities like these. It's nice sometimes to get away from all the craziness in Madrid and spend a day somewhere a little more tranquil...at least as long as you're not with a Hopkins tour group that wants to rush home for the early bird special for dinner. But the city is not without modern influence. The most comical was the outdoor escalater that takes you from the lower entrance to the city up towards the top. Why stairs aren't sufficient, I don't really know. The other was this amazing modern sculpture outside one of the outer wall's entrances. I took a picture because I thought it looked so great.
In the meantime, classes at Carlos Tercero are going alright. Definitely a walk in the park compared to Hopkins. I'm going to Rome with four friends on Friday and I. can't. wait. We'll be there until Sunday afternoon, way too short a time! And before you know it, it'll be November and I'll be somewhere other than Madrid every single weekend. I really can't believe how quickly the time is passing here.

¡Hola, rubia!

2008-10-08T21:49:00.003+02:00

Seems to be the most common way to get my attention now. If I walk through the plaza mayor to do a little souvenir shopping, a waiter will ask, "¿Quieres tomar una copa, rubia?" I buy something in a shop and the man at the cash register says "Hasta luego rubia." I have never been more aware of the fact that my hair is blonde. But here, for the first time in my life, I feel like I'm part of a minority.
Let's face it, I grew up in WASP-town USA, and even though I was raised Catholic, most of the people I know think I'm a white anglo-saxon protestant. But religion aside, by appearance I suppose I really do fall into your typical American girl category. Here though, my hair alone makes me stand out. I still don't understand exactly why it's such a novelty to call out "rubia" to every blonde you see. It's not like there are only 5 blondes in all of Spain. And it's definitely not true that blonde Spaniards don't exist. Though maybe the majority of blondes I see are tourists as well, whether from America or other parts of Europe.
Even so, it seems odd to me to holler out "Hey BLONDIE, want a beer?" I mean, who does that? I don't think I've ever been called Blondie back home...Goldilocks maybe, as a joke, especially because of my last name...but Blondie, no. I mean it really is just a cultural thing I guess, to call someone rubia. But it does call attention to the fact that someone stands out from the crowd here. And I'm still getting used to being a part of that.

Something for my family of architects

2008-10-02T22:13:00.010+02:00

Madrid's skyline

When I think of Madrid, I don't think of a distinctive skyline, and rightfully so, because the Spanish skyscrapers here are not only built by American architects, but really don't even compare to the skyscrapers in Chicago or New York. I really don't know anything about these buildings, so Dad, you can fill me in on this one :)

La Puerta de Europa

One half of the Puerta de Europa

The electronic waterfall at the metro stop Plaza de Castilla

My first and last bullfight

2008-10-02T21:21:00.000+02:00

If you're an animal lover or have a queasy stomach, don't read this

I went last weekend to the Plaza de Toros to try to experience a historic part of the Spanish culture...or so I told myself as I sold my soul to the devil and bought a 10 euro ticket to watch animal torture.

The outside of the Plaza de Toros

A group of seven of us decided to go, one of whom has been to bullfights before and can appreciate them in a different light. Meanwhile, I was trying to distract myself by taking pictures because somehow watching the bulls die was a little easier to do on a tiny screen instead of in real life. The only downside is that I now have a ton of pictures that I'll never want to look at again. The best part: we were front row. Who could have asked for better?

Just to give you an idea of how close we were to the ring

It's just absolutely horrible that they drug the animal and shave its horns, taking away its defenses, and allow the toreros to hop behind strong walls and jump outside the ring if the bull comes at them. I had also thought that the first stage only involved waving of the torero's cape...something I would have appreciated as more artistic and kind of like a rodeo or a magic show. But no, there are other toreros sitting atop horses and holding huge lances, stabbing the bull the entire time. And once the matador came out in the end, the bull had a stain of eerily bright blood all across its shoulders. The worst part was when they stabbed it in the spinal cord, missed, stabbed it again, and then dragged it out of the ring with two horses and a rope.
According to the culture book that we were supposed to read for this program, the bullfight is like an opera - a tragedy to be exact - in which the plot is exactly the same every time, but the way in which the end is met has thousands of variations. Sounds great, right? Well, tell that to poor little Ferdinand the Bull. I'm sorry, but I really can't support anything that involves animal torture murder for absolutely no purpose.
So as far as opening up to a new culture and being understanding, I fail with this particular tradition.

Language gaps are only worse over the phone

2008-09-25T21:49:00.006+02:00

Last night I was waiting for my host mother to come home for dinner, thinking she'd be back around 9:30. A few friends and I wanted to go out to the Erasmus event hosted for international students at a club in Madrid at 11. So when 9:30 came and went, I decided to text her and ask if it was ok if I helped myself to dinner. She called me back right away and began telling me what I could eat.
She told me to go to La nervea and look at el parte debajo.
Well the part below the fridge is the freezer, so I asked if she meant el congelador.
I got a pretty unclear answer, and then at this point she told me to look for una pisha.
I tried to ask her what una pisha even was, but she mistook my misunderstanding to mean that I didn't know how to say refrigerator or "below" in Spanish, and pulled out some of her few English phrases to remind me. I was trying not to feel slighted by this (it's pretty common now for her to remind me of simple Spanish words like país and famoso).
I finally got out a sentence along the lines of ¿pero qué es una pisha? only to get the incredulous answer ¿no sabes que es una pisha? followed by a string of "una PISHA" and "italiano, es ITALIANO!"
So at this point I thought I was looking for a type of pasta and was running through every kind I knew in my head...fettuccine, linguine, spaghetti...
And then I finally open up a drawer in the freezer and find a frozen PIZZA. I felt absolutely idiotic and apologized for not understanding her pronunciation. But when I met an Italian at the Erasmus event and retold this story, he explained that piscia (pronounced the way my host mother was pronouncing pizza) in Italian means something far different from any type of food. Then I didn't feel quite as stupid.

El Palacio Real

2008-09-21T23:26:00.007+02:00

Yesterday I went with two friends to the Royal Palace of Madrid. Photos were not allowed inside the Palace, so I ended up buying a guide book with pictures and information. I'm actually really happy with the purchase because the pictures are much better quality than anything I could have taken and all the information is right there for everyone to see. My only debate was whether to buy it in English or Spanish. I went with English because then it'd be much easier to share with my family. And maybe also because I felt a little lazy and didn't want to pull out the dictionary when I went to read through it.

A view of the Palace through the front gates

We couldn't have asked for a nicer day. It was gorgeous. And I was actually a little shocked that to enter the Palace only costs 3,50 € for students. The first display was of the Royal Pharmacy. It appeared almost playhouse-like to me. The colors on the walls and the urns were just short of ridiculous. The walk through the actual Palace itself was overwhelming with all the tapestries, ornate decorations, table pieces and all. Absolutely gorgeous though. The last display we went through was the Royal Armory. It's incredible to think how much weight the soldiers and their horses had to carry.
We tried to visit the Cathedral Almudena, directly across from the Palace, but it was closed. We'll just have to go back another time I guess.

La Catedral Almudena

We tried searching for a statue of Carlos III outside of the palace, but none were as recent as the 18th century. The only statues surrounding the gardens were of kings ranging from the 2nd to the 3rd century. Waaaaay old.
I keep forgetting that I came here to study abroad. I'd much rather spend my time touring through the city and visiting other countries than going to classes. But we've only finished with one full week of school at this point, so maybe by the end of this week I'll be more used to it. A few of us have decided though that it would be best to choose one location in the city each week and take a tour. That way, by December, we'll know Madrid a lot better than we do now. I'm most excited for the art class that takes us to the Prado. There's no way I'll be too ashamed to bring my camera with me then.

La Noche En Blanco

2008-09-14T22:26:00.007+02:00

"The best dream happens when the city's awake"

Yesterday was the third annual Noche en Blanco, where everyone in Madrid stays out until 7 am going from bar to bar and museum to museum. The lines were HUGE. We started out the night pretty early with a group tapas dinner at 8:30 or 9 pm. I was home and heading to bed by 5 am. I probably just should have stay out an extra hour and waited for the metro to open back up. It would have made getting home a lot easier. Some of our group left early, around 2 am, one girl I know stayed out until 8 am -- CRAZY!

This was near the center of the city in Gran Via

The festival is a celebration of contemporary culture for the beginning of autumn, when there's a full moon. Through parts of the city there was live music playing. We waited a good hour and a half to see a tightrope walker pass over one of the largest streets in Madrid, but because the wind was too strong that was canceled unfortunately.
It was all a little overwhelming, but definitely worth it. I do wish that we had had a little more patience for the lines and tried to get into at least one of the museums. But it wasn't a wasted night at all just wandering through the streets and stopping at some of the bars, just absorbing all the chaos.

Finally, an update!

2008-09-09T22:43:00.013+02:00

It's nearly 11 pm here and the skies have opened up to an intense thunderstorm and left me here at my host's home to finally update this blog! I'm actually really thankful for that. I've had so much going on and no time to really write about it. I'll try to keep it condensed, but meanwhile my mind is seriously jumping from one place to the other like crazy.

The Plaza Mayor in Salamanca

The first two weeks in Salamanca were amazing. Looking back on it, I'm really glad that we started out in that environment because it's a much smaller city than Madrid and we didn't have to worry right away about fitting in with a host family. The Escuela Internacional was not at all as intensive as I was expecting, but it was at a level that was relaxed enough to really facilitate good discussion in Spanish -- which is what I need most, to boost my conversational skills. I absolutely loved the three guys that me and my friends Becca and Michelle had class with. There was Romain from France, Julian from Germany, and Kareem from Egypt. We went out a few nights with them and their friend Alfredo, who's from Mexico, to the bars in the area.

Me with Romain and Alfredo

Kareem and Michelle

Julian and Becca

The Hopkins group spent one day touring the Old and New Cathedrals in Salamanca. It was just amazing to see all the ornate architecture. We took some pictures inside the cathedrals as well, but they didn't turn out as well.
This is a view of the New Cathedral, which dates back to about the 16th and 17th centuries. The Old Cathedral dates back to the 12th century. On the front entrance to the New Cathedral, sort of hidden in all the engravings, is a mini sculpture that I blew up in the next picture:

Manuel, our Program Coordinator, first told us this astronaut was carved by the futuristic foresight of seventeen century invisionaries...and when everyone had fallen for it, he explained that as the Cathedral has undergone restorations, a new stonemason -- whose name escapes me entirely right now -- carved both the astronaut here and a dragon holding an ice cream cone. After meeting him, which we did on another group excursion, we saw exactly how these subtle, almost practical jokes, fit in with his sense of humor.
I'm kicking myself right now for not being able to remember his name. We walked across half the city to meet this man after walking across the other half of the city to buy our train tickets to Portugal for the weekend. By the time we made it to his workshop, we were tired and dehydrated, and unfortunately not in the mood to focus on understanding Spanish.
I really wish we had just taken a bus to meet him, because if I hadn't been so close to passing out, I would have been really interested in his presentation.
Inside the Old Cathedral was this statue of the Virgin Mary holding Christ. I took a picture of it because you can notice that one of her hands is missing. Throughout the entire Cathedral there were statues like this one with missing limbs or heads -- all damage done during Franco's Era when his troops stormed the Cathedral.

On the entrance to the University of Salamanca, Spain's oldest university founded in the 13th century, there are more carvings much like those on the Cathedrals. There's a bit of a game among Spanairds and tourists alike to try to find the cráneo with the rana on top of its head. It's literally the carving of a skull, a symbol of death, with a frog on top. Before this trip I had never known that the frog could symbol life. Those who can find the frog on the door will have good luck. It's become a very commercial image for the tourist shops that stick frogs on everything from shot glasses to keychains -- both of which I bought, though I opted not to get the stuffed animal frog that said "Te quiero" across its heart.

I had to zoom in all the way with my camera and then zoom in on the picture once I uploaded it to my computer, so the frog is a little hard to spot, but it is there. Trust me. This is the Old Roman Bridge, built when the Roman Empire had spread over all of Europe. We didn't appreciate it as much when I took this picture because we had to cross it on our walk to see the stonemason who worked on the New Cathedral.

This next photo I love. It's the Plaza Mayor at night. We had been sitting in the Plaza eating tapas when the lights went on, and all the tourists clapped. A little while later, a couple groups of what I'm told are university students, came out and played music and sang. They were all dressed up like medieval pages. It was so cute to watch.

And Finally I have a few photos of our weekend trip to Lisbon. We went on a guided tour of the city and stopped outside one of the oldest churches to try Ginjinha, a REALLY strong cherry and cinnamon liquor that was originally made by monks, but has since become a commercial phenomenon for the Portuguese and tourists alike. They pour it into a shot glass, but because it is so strong, most people still sip it. After watering mine down, I still couldn't drink it all. At the bottom of the cup they have the actually cherries that they used to make the liquor.

A poster hanging outside the stand selling Ginjinha

After that we went up to see the Elevador da Santa Justa, an elevator built by one of Gustave Eiffel's students. They're is apparantly a large influence of Eiffel's work in this elevator that dates back to 1902. We didn't actually go into the elevator itself, but walked up these rickety old steps to get to the top...

Where we saw this amazing panaramic view of the city of Lisbon. Though I only uploaded one photo with a view of the harbor. We later went out on the water in a ferry to see the statue of Christ the King a little closer up, though it was closed and we didn't get quite as close as I would have liked to.And finally, here's one last picture from Portugal of the entrance to the city facing the harbor. Each carving on here is either of a political figure or an embodiment of one of the city's virtures. I'm going to have to do a little research to remember what the tour guide had told us about each one.So now I'm here, in my host mother's home. She's a separated woman with a grown son who has a family of his own now. It's a little awkward being here because I don't know what might be offensive to her and whether I'm expected to spend a certain amount of time with her. The first day was a nightmare. I had been expecting us to have a little reception after we got off the bus from Salamanca, so that we might meet our familes -- because at this point I knew nothing about mine -- and meet the families of our friends. I also thought they might try to orient us with the city a little so we wouldn't have absolutely no idea where anything was. But instead it was get off the bus and hop into a cab with your host mom and that was that. So when I ended up here without functioning internet service that night and my Señora had decided to go out for the night, and I couldn't find my address on the map, I called my Dad in tears. Thank God I finally got a hold of one of my friends on the trip, Mike, who had a little better sense of how far my apartment was from his. He came and got me and then we went into the main part of the city by the metro with Becca and Michelle and tried to get our bearings a little and relax. Things have gone a little better since then. My Señora is very nice, and an amazing cook! But I do still feel a little weirded out being here. I guess I had been expecting to stay with a family who had either kids about my age or even younger. I did meet her two grandsons and that was nice, but it can be a little hard to relate to a woman her age when we also have this language barrier.

So I'm actually posting this much later than I had anticipated because last night's storm had turned into a hail storm. I lost internet service and it didn't come back on until I was a zombie sometime after 2:30 am. So I gave up and went to bed. Today's a free day for me, no presentations that I need to see at Carlos III before classes start next week, so Mike and I are going to go explore the city a little. Hasta luego!

Um fim de semana em Lisboa

2008-09-01T01:45:00.002+02:00

Our program in Salamanca left us with a free weekend, so all eleven of the students decided to take a train to Lisbon, Portugal for a couple days. It was absolutely amazing. We just got back to Salamanca around an hour ago, and I cannot express how amazing it felt to finally take a shower after two 7 hour train rides, a walking city tour, and a night in a hostel. I haven't felt that grimy in so long. But it was absolutely worth it all. And honestly, the hostel was really a very good deal considering all the horror stories I've heard about hostels from my Dad. I'll have to upload photos soon. Not now though...it's going on 2 am and I have class in the morning. Time to crash!

¡Estamos aquí!

2008-08-24T17:46:00.004+02:00

We arrived in Madrid just after 10 am today, or 4 am Baltimore time, and promptly hopped on a bus to Salamanca. We're staying here at La Escuela Internacional for 2 weeks to take intensive language programs and immerse ourselves in the culture. We had a small lunch at the dorms, located a few blocks away from the school itself, and then headed out for the Plaza Mayor to pick up some soap and other toiletries. We couldn't believe how quiet the streets were, and one of the students asked Manuel, our program leader, "¿Dónde está la gente?" He explained that because today is Sunday (domingo), everyone is at home or taking a siesta. Once we got to the actual Plaza itself though, there were many more people out and about...mostly tourists. We stopped in the Plaza for some café con leche and then headed back to our rooms. We're staying in one of the oldest parts of Salamanca, and the buildings are absolutely gorgeous. We each have our own small room here with a bathroom attached, and (of course the best part) internet service! I signed on to Yahoo to check my email account, and found a Bienvenido a Yahoo España sign across the top of the page. I'm also getting used to the Euro cents, the Triple Acción Binaca de Aquafresh (toothpaste), and the extremely necessary adapter plug.
Tomorrow we start off the week with our placement test to help us fit into the best classes here at La Escuela Internacional. Manuel promised that we would be Madrileños by the end of the two weeks.

Still Procrastinating

2008-08-20T04:25:00.004+02:00

So the countdown's now down to 4 days and I'm still avoiding that suitcase and consulting my friend Jess every 2 seconds on what I should pack. She went on this program two years ago. I think I'm finally ready to tackle it for real this time after tonight's late-night instant messenger convo with her.
The good news is that despite how long it's taking me to face the facts of time and luggage, I am moving ahead with my technological preparation for this trip. I am, as of today, on Skype and webcam equipped!

Today at the JHU Press, the marketing department had a luncheon for two staff members' birthdays. There was this little sign in the cake for me. It was the cutest little thing. I'm really glad I got a chance to sit down with all of them and not have to worry about work-related projects for a good hour. I promised them I'd be back to work there in the spring. In the meantime, I'm working there everyday this week trying to save up a tiny bit more before I go.

Counting Down the Days

2008-08-14T20:10:00.006+02:00

Here I am, 9 days away from my departure, and I'm a wreck. I've gone through every reason in my mind why I shouldn't go to Madrid for 4 months. I've basically abandoned my bedroom in a state of utter chaos that best illustrates all the mush building up in my mind right about now. There's an open suitcase on my bed and clothes, books, papers, and shoes strewn in every direction. But when my friend and coworker Zoey tried convincing me to clock out for a manicure or a facial, all that flashed through my head were the stages of adjustment that were handed out in all the paperwork from the Study Abroad Office.

This is Rhinesmith's Ten Stages of Adjustment...and right now I'm at step 1. Deeply ground into step one. I'm imagining going to an ATM in Spain and having my card rejected because there are no more funds in my account. Then, after spazing out in the middle of una calle llenada, I see myself suddenly realizing that I can't afford a train ride back to my host señora's home in the city.
I joked with the saleswoman at the Point A Luggage store at Towson Town Center yesterday, after I bought an adapter for all of my appliances, that I felt like I was leaving everything for the last minute. She assured me that I was well on top of things, saying she couldn't even count how many people would come in asking her for help, telling her they were scheduled to leave in a day or two.
Well, maybe I'm not quite as bad off as I imagine, but I know that when I actually brave up enough to go back to that suitcase buried under clothes on my bed, it's going to take a good long while before I've actually decided what to pack. I called my Dad the other day wondering if I should cut down the 7 pairs of shoes I'd picked out to 4. He said I should limit myself to two. But how on earth can I do that and still match all my various outfits that I have in mind? No, no, two pairs of shoes simply won't do.