Segovia

Yay for self-taken pictures!
Two weekends ago I ent to Segovia, and it was wicked awesome.
So here´s some pics to prove it:

Me and Brittany, really happy to be in Segovia.

The Segovia cathedral (Get a load of her!)

Tali and me in front of the Roman aqueducts.

the Alcázar´s silhouette, sunrise.

The Alcázar at sunset.

I like to title this photo Palacio de Comunicaciones y la luna, Valencia. I was there over thanksgiving. Instead of a turkey, we ate paella. Instead of cutting a Christmas tree in the snowy woods the next day, we went to the Mediterranean coast to wade.


And now I´m back in Alcalá de Henares, but not for long. I just took my exams here at the university, and tomorrow I´m headed south. Córdoba, Sevilla, Granada, here I come!
Yesterday was so funny it made me laugh. I was in the apartment studying while I was waiting for lunch to be ready (it was already past 3:00 pm and I was starving). So I´m sitting there trying to get ready for the Spanish Literature exam that I took this morning (don´t ask about it, the response won´t be pretty) and meanwhile, Gema (Nieves´ daughter) had bought a techno-Christmas smurf CD for her three-year-old (AKA the most annoying thing ever) and had put it on, but her son, Andrés, wan´t even listening to it--just running around and screaming. In addition my señor was watching this government access channel (AKA the most boring thing ever) and had the volume turned up so high it was blaring. Nieves was having to yell some conversation with her son in the kitchen because it was so loud, and to top it all off, Toy, the stupid rat dog was yapping his head off. And there´s me in the middle of it, trying to study. What an afternoon.

November updates

Pictures!

This is the most recent picture of me, from this weekend when we went to Salamanca. The cathedral is amazing. You might think that by now I´d be weary of yet another cathedral, but they´re all so different from one another, and this one is particularly spectacular. It looks even more amazing at sunset, but uh, I don´t. =) The sun was shining straight into my eyes and I couldn´t help but squint. Just look over my shoulder. That´s the best part of the picture anyway.


Sam and me in the Plaza de Cibeles in front of the Palacio de Comunicaciones! When he came to Madrid, we spent some seven hours or so strolling around the city, catching up, comparing study abroad programs, and making eachother miss Albuquerque. Thanks for a little taste of home, Sam.


Emily and me actually at the very same place as above, but at daytime and infront of the Cibeles fountain. That day I caved and went to McDonald´s. Oh, but not for a bigmac and fries, oh no. Who would have thought that one of the best places to get a salad in Madrid would be McDonald´s? Welcome to Spain.


Libby and me thoroughly enjoying a Spanish pastry. Yeah, I know, It looks like doughnut. But it´s a Spanish doughnut.
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I had the best day today. I feel like my experiences in Spain are just getting better and better. And while my time is running out, and I have exams to prepare for and hard Spanish plays to be reading and a gazillion papers to write (no exaggeration, either), I’m playing pretty hard too. It is so worth it!
My day was pretty simple, and it didn’t go perfectly by any means, but I am simply in a state of mind where I don’t want to let any small thing get to me and make me have a bad day. Let me explain. Today was a holiday in Madrid, so I decided, along with six friends, to check out the Rastro--this famous huge flea market that’s usually only on Sundays. Since we had class in the morning till 12:30, by the time we finally made it to where the Rastro is held after booking it to the train station and the half hour trip to the city, it was almost 2:00 and all the shops and booths were closing up and the streets were clearing out—that darned siesta! So our experience certainly doesn’t accurately exemplify the true Rastro experience, but we enjoyed browsing nonetheless.
We eventually started making our way back to back to the metro, so we could head to this tram in the middle of the city called Teleférico that goes to this big park with lots of trails and paths and disembarks on a hill with beautiful views of the Madrid skyline, including the Palacio Real and the Catedral de la Almudena, and…. Well anyway, when I got to the metro station, I realized that while at the Rastro, someone had robbed me of my metro/train/bus/every-form-of-transportation-that-I-need-to-get-to-and-around-Madrid-pass. At first I was really bummed out, and then I was just pissed. I mean royally seething. If I had known hexes, I absolutely would have been cursing the thief. I bought a one-trip ticket for the metro and griped all the way to Teleférico, saying that I hoped something bad happened to whoever took my pass for every time he or she swiped my pass at a metro or train station or bus stop. There is just no excuse for stealing my pass. None.
But then I got on the tram and let the smooth ride and the pretty vistas at sunset soothe me. I realized I seriously needed to chill out, because although I think I was pretty justified to feel the way I did at first, I was no fun to be with as long as I was pissed off, and I wasn’t allowing myself to enjoy the day. The tram isn’t very high off the ground, so we got to see a lot of, um, detail. We were right above this beautiful park when all of a sudden the tram car this hill with a road that runs through the park. There were about six or seven prostitutes lining the side of the road, each one about fifteen yards from the next. I was really shocked to see them so out of context—they weren’t exactly on a sleazy city street. I started thinking about what their lives must be like. So what if I have to spend 50 euros for another transportation pass? Yeah, I’d really like to not have to pay that, but at least my wallet wasn’t stolen. At least I wasn’t hurt. At least I’m not a prostitute like the half-dozen girls we saw flashing cars of families coming to a park for a picnic on a holiday. Unlike them, I really enjoyed my walk around the park this afternoon. What a day I was having in comparison! So I perked up. I remember what I told my sister Janae when I was getting ready to come to Spain—that I wanted everyday of my semester to be a little better if only because I had spent it in Spain.
Even the train ride back to Alcalá from Madrid was better than usual. I appreciated the sunset, the company, even the Spanish strangers. When we got back to Alcalá, the six of us split the best pizza I have ever eaten in my life (probably because I don’t remember the last time I’ve eaten pizza—especially Dion’s caliber). We made our way to Calle Mayor, where some of us parted ways, but this cool chic Brittany convinced me to come play pool with the two boys from the group. I totally smoked those boys. I even made a shot behind my back (I was as surprised as them). And to finish off my day, I read an email from my sister and heard all about how awesome of a goalie she was in the NM girls state soccer championships. I walked the half hour or so to my apartment with a smile on my face. And when I walked in the door, I told my sweet senora Nieves all about my day. She seems to care about all the little details as much as I do—I remember when I walked in one afternoon and said to her “Nieves, acabo de ver el hombre mas guapo de todo el mundo esta tarde,” (“I just saw the most handsome man in the whole world”—yeah, this was definitely a one time occurrence.) and she said back to me, “ Pues, dime donde para que yo pueda verle también!” (“Well, tell me where so I can go back and see him too!”) I love my conversations with her.

Spain update

So it’s been a while since my last post… what with my trip up to the north of Spain for five days, catching a cold from my roommate, and writing the ten pages or so I had to turn in this week, it kinda fell to the bottom of my priority list. But that’s enough excuses, there’s lots to catch up on!

AVILA
…was super windy! But worth it to walk most of the perimeter of the town on the city walls. Here’s me in a rare partly sunny moment:

I’m sitting atop the city walls, and in the background you can see the cathedral that was actually built into the walls!
And in Avila, I had my first opportunity to try out Spanish hot chocolate. And I think one cup was enough for me. It was so thick I had to eat it with a spoon—like piping hot pudding. I don’t want to know what they put in there to make it that thick…

SEMANA CERVANTINA
The weekend before my trip up north there were celebrations in Alcalá de Henares of Semana Cervantina, a week honoring Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, whose home town was Alcalá. There was a medieval fair in the plaza and all the booth workers were dressed in Medieval garb (it must have been some sort of rule). I’ve never seen such getups! And cool booths that sold cool things that I would never buy! Like miniature wood-burning stoves and a giant chess set made of wrenches, pipes, bolts, and screws. I even saw an entire nativity set made out of leather. And there were basket makers, wood carvers, even a guy who was working on a larger-than-life rendering of Don Quixote in tin. A Don Quixote Tin Man! But my favorite part were the authentic medieval bands that made their way through the streets and crowds dressed from head to toe in medieval clothing of course, playing some wind instruments I’ve never seen (or heard) before, bagpipes, drums, and complete with jugglers and an interesting bald man with eyeliner and a yellow python wrapped around his neck. Oh, and the food. The guy at the gyro booth (I know, aren’t gyros Greek?) got really excited when I ordered my gyro ‘picante’. He started whooping and yelling, rang a bell, crossed himself, and then with a wink handed the gyro to me and called me ‘guapa’. The gyro was pretty amazing, but not that ‘picante’. =)


CORRIDA DE TOROS
Last Sunday I went to my first corrida de toros in the historic Plaza de Las Ventas in Madrid, mecca of bullfighting. I bought the tickets off of the internet, so I wasn’t sure how great our seats would be, but we ended up being pretty close. The man that showed us to our seats told us they were ‘the best in the house’. =) This is me and Jenny before the corrida started.

When I first studied bullfighting, my initial reaction was in disgust at its cruelty and inhumanity. But when I learned I´d be coming to Spain, I realized that a truly authentic cultural experience would include bullfighting, and that I needed to put a little more effort into trying to understand this tradition that has been a part of Spain´s history for centuries, with the first corrida taking place in the eighth century to honor king Alfonso VIII. So my first weekend in Spain, I watched an entire corrida on TV and was completely fascinated, asking my senora endless questions about the order of events, the rules, what the audience’s reactions were. There was a lot more to learn than I thought, and I was really interested to know more.
I have to say that being present for a real live bullfight is pretty amazing. I had a few breathless moments where I thought the matador was totally gonna get gored. And Spain has hard crowds to please. I was perhaps most entertained by the men around us that seemed to think they could do a better job out there in the ring. Three bulls were sent back after a few minutes in the arena because they were deemed unfit to fight, and after each bull was sent back, more and more of the audience got up to leave.
Believe it or not, bullfighting is as much as a controversial issue in Spain as it is in other parts of the world. A large percentage of the population is against corridas, with good reason. It isn’t a fair fight. Each bull that enters the ring will die that day—even the three that were sent back, because they had already been injured badly. For that one corrida, a total of nine bulls were killed. And although I do admit that there is a lot of talent, skill, fluidity, and technique involved in bullfighting, not to mention bravery, I don’t think it’s the sport for me. I’ll stick with futbol. But one last note before I wrap up my thoughts: the issue of bullfighting is really much more complex than I have energy to explore here, but if you’d like to discuss it with me sometime, I’m game.

And now for a few other updates:
What I’m listening to: Juanes. Let’s hear it for Colombian rock!
My most recent gripe: Mechanical pencils are hard to come by here in Spain, much less good ones. I suppose I could try Corte Ingles, the huge department store chain that is known for offering American products, but I don’t want to pay 5 euros for a pencil. And batteries! Why are Spanish batteries crap? Give me Energizer or Duracell!
And in parting, I leave you with a random thought: I just found by far the coolest Spanish verb ever. And I‘ve found some other cool verbs before too, like olisquear—to sniff. Or estornudar—to sneeze. But this one tops them all: zigzaguear—to wind around (or, clearly, to zigzag). I am so integrating this word into my vocabulary!

More soon on my trip up north!

´burque on the news

The most unexpected thing happened today. I was in our apartment today having lunch with my host family, and as usual, the news was on the TV in the background, when suddenly Albuquerque was on the screen! Albuquerque on the news in Madrid! Who would have thought I would be watching Albuquerque from an apartment in Alclalá de Henares, Spain? I dropped my spoon and craned my neck around my roommate’s head to see the screen better. "¡Esa es mi ciudad!" I said, pointing excitedly and completely interrupting the table conversation. It turns out the Prince of Spain and his wife were visiting the UNM campus. They even interviewed a few Spanish-speaking students. Was it on the news in ´burque?

Yesterday was a good day.

Yesterday was a good day. I went to Madrid by myself, which to some may not be much of an accomplishment, but to me it is. A small one, but an accomplishment nonetheless. Going to Madrid alone isn’t allowed in the program, for safety issues, but I felt it was necessary—I needed to get away and start learning about Madrid on my own.
The thing that made it challenging was figuring out my way through an unfamiliar part of the city to find the Museo Sorolla—what used to be the home of my favorite Spanish painter, Joaquin Sorolla, but is now a museum housing a collection of his works. I did my best not to look like an extranjera, which is a lot harder then you might think. But my map-reading skills and newly acquired metro-savvy came in handy! I made it to the museum with no trouble, and with the combination of this minor success and my enthusiasm for Sorolla, I may have been a little over-excited when I arrived. I think the woman at the entry noticed. =)
The museum was pretty cool, even though it didn’t have my favorite paintings (I think they’re in the Prado). And Sorolla also designed his garden, inspired by the gardens of the Alhambra in Granada. Speaking of which, that’s something I’ve noticed about Madrid (and perhaps Spain in general): they really value public gardens—El Parque del Buen Retiro, for example, is amazing. And huge!
After the museum, I went to Gran Vía, and to the most beautiful movie theatre I’ve ever been to, to see Mar Adentro, the latest film directed by Alejandro Amenabar, who also directed The Others. The Others is his only American film, but he’s well known in the Spanish film industry with Nadie Conoce a Nadie, and La Lengua de Las Mariposas, among others. Mar Adentro is a wonderful piece of cinematography—I didn’t understand most of the dialogue, which was either in Castilian (Spanish), Galician, or Catalan (widely spoken in Barcelona), but I picked up on some of it, and was able at least to understand the general ideas of the film. I’d like to watch a version with English subtitles eventually so I can actually understand what exactly the characters are saying to eachother. I don’t know if it’s out in the states yet, but it’s worth seeing. But this theatre! It was so old-fashioned, with nice red seats, golden Rococo-style balconies, crystal chandeliers, and even uniformed ushers with flashlights to show you to your assigned seat. What an event for only four euros!It was so wonderful to be in Madrid, and alone—with the freedom to explore wherever I wanted to go without having others dictate my plans for me. I think I’m gonna have to sneak away more often.

Check out this 400 year old castle in Coca, Spain!

Last weekend we went to Leon, in the north of Spain. Leon is well known for being the last city in the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. The cathedral there is marvelous, and worthy of its fame for its stained glass—if you go inside on a sunny day, the interior of the cathedral seems to glow with the light diffused through the stained glass, creating this awesome ethereal ambience. And at night, the lit up cathedral is spectacular in a completely different way with its dramatic shadows. In addition to the cathedral, there are several buildings designed by Gaudí, and like any other city in Spain, there are plenty of other older buildings as well as newer ones, creating a mix of the archaic and the modern.
That said, I saw the strangest thing the night we stayed in Leon. When our group toured the Cathedral in the afternoon, we noticed that outside in the square right in front of the Cathedral there were several men setting up what appeared to be a stage and lighting equipment, so we asked the men for details about the event they were setting up for. They explained that that night there would be a techno party. (Techno, by the way, is sooooo popular here. I hear it blaring from about half of the cars that pass, because, if one is going to play techno, one must roll down the windows and turn if up for the entire country to hear. I even hear it from cars when I’m in class.) One of the roadies was even very adamant in telling me personally to be there at 10:00 PM. I repeated back to him, “Vale, diez en punto. Estaremos aquí.” So, we decided to check out this supposed techno party. But first, on our way, a few girls and I decided to get some tapas and horchata at a tapas bar just around the corner from the square. We could see the Cathedral, but the stage was out of our view. The bell tower rang at 10:00 and we heard no music. The bell tower rang at 10:15 and still no music. We looked at our watches. “I thought this gig was supposed to start at ten, where’s the techno?” I asked the other girls. By 10:30, we were ready to get up and go around the corner to see if there really was anything going on. I will never forget what we saw. The colored lights from the stage were spinning and twirling in some sort of silent rhythm, and there was a relatively good sized crowd at the front of the stage. The DJ was nodding his head in the same silent rhythm the lights were moving to, and every few seconds, the crowd would erupt in small bursts of applause. But no music. There were even dancers on podiums shakin’ their stuff and bumping and grinding… but all I could hear was their breathing and their steps on the plywood or whatever it was that they were standing on. We soon realized that in order to get in on this techno party, we would have to buy headsets to enjoy the music. Oh! The marketing concept! The crowd was applauding at a group of break-dancers. But other than the break dancers and those hired to dance on the platforms (who were trying really hard not to look stupid and appear to be having a good time), no one else was dancing. The whole spectacle was pretty laughable. There were sixty-year-old men on their paseos (evening walks) with headsets. This event would have been weird in any location, but it was especially unusual in front of this 13th century gothic Cathedral. Talk about a mix of archaic and modern.

This is the Leon Cathedral. Now imagine a techno party just out of view to the left. Yeah, I know. Weird.

Toledo

On Saturday, I went to Toledo-- what an amazing city!


This was my favorite destination that we visited, La Iglesia de San Juan do los Reyes. It was spectacularly beautiful. It reminded me of when I used to imagine castles when I was a little girl.

And this is Jenny (my roommate) and me Friday night on Calle Mayor-- definitely the livliest area of Alcala de Henares.

tranquila, corazón mío.

Oh, be still my heart. Last night I went to the David Bisbal concert in the Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas in Madrid. And I convinced seventeen other people to go with me. =) Fue increíble! What with his hip shimmying and karate kicks and smooth Spanish voice, he can put on quite a show. No wonder he’s a latin pop heartthrob. Check out some pictures:



He’s looking right at me!

We were pretty close! Well, we should have been—we waited in line for a considerable amount of time, but it was well worth it. I had been waiting for this concert for two months. The only thing that was disappointing was the fact that everyone around me was singing so loudly that it was difficult to hear DB himself. Listen Madrileños—I know you know the all the words; I do too. But I didn’t come all the way across the Atlantic ocean to hear you sing, ¿me entiendes? Let the man do his job! That said, I still had a great time. And the Plaza de Toros where the concert took place is quite the impressive venue for a concert—I’m hoping to go back for a bullfight, too.

This is before the concert, with the Plaza de toros de Las Ventas behind me.

On a completely different note, you know how you hear about how the trends in Europe vary significantly from those in the United States? Well, you would never guess what’s popular in Spain right now. The Mullet. Oh yes. It’s migrated from monster truck rallies and county fairs all over the U.S. all the way to Spain, but a revised version of course: instead of the front being short and the back being long, the sides are short and the rest is longer—almost like a Mohawk-Mullet mix. Rat-tail is optional. This is the crazy thing: it almost looks good. Really. It’s surprising how well some guys can pull it off. In fact, it’s beginning to grow on me. Well, not literally. I wonder if in a few months this new trend will hit America? Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

¡Hola España!

Ay de mí. En serio. Madrid, here I am! I arrived six days ago and what a six days it has been. Let’s start with a brief summary of the flight over here…
It was supposed to be so easy: Albuquerque to Atlanta to Madrid. But no. There were mechanical problems with the plane and several international fliers had to be rerouted through Paris in order to reach their destinations as close to their original arrival times as possible. Don’t ever get lost in the Paris airport if you can’t speak French. Not a fun experience. So there were a few speed bumps along the way, but in the international traveler check-in line in ‘burque I met an incredibly nice and genuine man named Gary who helped me through my first international flying experience. He made sure to watch out for me. There should be more Gary’s in the world. And to Gary in Munich, thank you.
As soon as I arrived in the Madrid-Barajas, I managed to find my luggage right away, and it wasn’t long before I ran into other students in the same program. Good thing, because I couldn’t figure out how to use the phones. We were then quickly bussed to Alcalá de Henares where we were promptly whisked away by our host-people, not to see anyone in the program for two days.
The senora that I was assigned to turned out to be strict, unreasonable, inflexible, manipulative, difficult to deal with and psychotic in general. How do I mean? Well, first off, let me say that the room she prepared for me and my roommate was lovely. Two decent beds, shelf space, a closet and a number of drawers, a nice window and even a television. The room was a small but perfectly comfortable living space. But it didn’t take us long to realize that she had unreasonably high expectations of us. She kept repeating to us that her home was not a hotel and that we had to respect the rules (“Tenéis que respetar las reglas!”), but we had given her no reason to lecture us, as we had had no opportunity to behave any certain way, having just arrived, and furthermore, we were profusely (and sincerely) thanking her.
The first day, when my roommate got out of the shower, our senora followed her around with a mop, and she came into the room telling us that we had to keep the closet doors closed. When we left the building, my roommate and I left the piso very clean. We both had unpacked, and I tried to organize my things on the shelves provided. And I made my bed. When we came back later that day, the room was immaculately clean: everything on the nightstand had been put on our shelves and she remade my bed. The next day, we were about eight minutes late to lunch because we had gotten ourselves lost in the town and we got a lecture.
So, last night we moved in to another apartment. We live in what is basically a closet, but this new woman is incredibly nice (she’s kind of like another Gary). We can come and go whenever we please, we can use her phone, and it just plain feels good to be around her. And, of course, she feeds us—but we don’t have to worry about running late.
Oh the drama! More about Alcalá de Henares and Madrid later...

I love experiments

So I decided to try this whole blog thing out. You know me and experimenting with new things. I resisted for so long! But alas, I've caved. We'll just have to see if I can follow through and stick with it. For now, I'm gonna see if I can work my magic and make a picture appear. (I know what you're thinking: "Wow, she's pretty ambitious for her first post." Yeah, well, prepare to be blown away, because I am friggin' amazing.)

Oh yes. That's how it's done. I told you I was amazing.