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...