I think is is needless to say that there has been a lot going on over here. We had our last week of class for the curso intensivo, turned in a paper for the history and politics section, gave oral presentations, and have a cultural essay due on Monday. Then come our exams, which I'm not sure how to feel about. I'm pretty settled in to my new apartment where I have been living for just over a week, and soon Sarah and I will have new flat-mates! She is from Scotland, there is another girl coming from Scotland but she is Australian (or something like that), there are two French girls moving in tomorrow, and a Spanish guy moving in on Monday! Let me just put it out there that I'm so relieved to be living with at least one native speaker. While I'm on a tangent, I want to stop and say how greatful I am for the people that work in the program office. They are so wonderful and work so hard to help us have the best experience possible. What I am currently really happy about is that I finally watched the Glee season premiere yesterday afternoon! There ware way to many story elements for my brain to handle, but it was exciting. For a while I was worried that I was going to have to try to watch it theough some sketchy website, but I got help from my more tech-savy friends. This picture is of the view of Madrid coming back from Casa de Campo on the air cable car. My next goal is to figure out how to get a caption right under it.
Saludos!

Retiro

Today, I went with Lindsay, Claire, Danielle, Ben, Caleb, Eduardo, Eric and Ryan (phew!) to El Parque del Buen Retiro and I am now postponing any work I might get done tonight so I don't forget anything about it! It took us a while to all get together and get going, but it was totally worth it. We wanted to get some food, so we went outside of the park. It took us a while to find anything, though. We were initially looking for a market to buy food to take back to the park, but we went to a place called Rodillas (where some of us actually ate yesterday) which has many many varieties of cold "salad" sandwiches, hot sandwiches and sides. We went back to the park, where Ben finally joined us, and started to explore. There were a lot of people with stands selling snacks, jewelry, etc, there was a magician, there was a guy doing the crazy spray paint art like the guy on State Street, and selling balloons were Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and...wait for it...Barney. As in the purple dinosaur. And the costume was cross eyed...super creepy. Ben, Lindsay, Ryan and Eduardo went to take a row boat out on to the "lake" and the rest of us wandered aroud. Totally by accident, we found the Crystal Palace, which is a palace-like building made with a lot of glass. There was a sculpture inside that I cannot explain with words, hopefully I'll remember to put up a picture. After further wandering, we decided to take a siesta in the grass, which was quite nice. From our siesta spot, we saw a couple getting wedding pictures taken. Also, there was a place near the lake where there were a bunch of random cats hanging out, apparently they keep food there. On our way out, there were three guys playing reggae music and they turned out to be a legitimate band from Barcelona. I bought their CD, and they sang "No Woman No Cry". That awesome. p.s. On out way in to the park there was someone playing a trumpet and he played "My heart will go on". Odd, but I liked it. Needless to say, I want to go back again soon! I just made my first legitimate grocery shopping trip at a Supermercado about 3 blocks from my apartment. There is also a natural food store I found that I would like to check out. Quote of the day: "Why are there naked babies on everything in this city? I'm so sick of naked babies!"

Words of wisdom from my day-by-day calendar:
"Even if the water falls drop by drop, it will fill the pot." -The Dhammapada

Okay. Wednesday was the day all of us WIPTers got booted out of the Colegio Mayor and moved to our apartments or temporary accommodations. Since we had the whole day free, a group of us decided to venture out to Ikea. After a long metro ride and what seemed like quite a walk, we made it! Let me just say that it BLEW MY MIND. They sell food there! And we definitely took longer than we intended to actually get through the display part of the store. Believe me, I could probably spend all day there if I had the time. I bought sheets, a pillow, a mirror, and some notebook storage things. I'm super proud of myself for holding back, haha. Today I was gone for 12 hours with class, checking out classes in the office, lunch, and going to the huge mall in Principe Pio. I have to go and meet some folks to find out what we're doing tonight so this is all for now. Hasta pronto.

New Home

My happy is that now I can use the internet in my apartment! My crappy is that I got sick from stress+not enough sleep+the tendency of my sinuses to be plagued by congestion. I pledge to get more sleep! The piso where I'm renting a habitación keeps growing on me. My room is small, but it is mine and I like it (I made it even better by putting up pictures of some very special people). The window opens to a nice courtyard area with plants and such and there is a nice breeze coming in. I did laundry for the first time here this afternoon, and its currently hanging on a drying rack in the hallway (dryers are very rare). Things are starting to get pretty intensivo in the curso intensivo. We have a part of our grammar exam tomorrow, 3-5 minute speeches for conversation next week and papers for grammar/conversation and history the Monday after next and then exams on those classes and art! I'm hoping that this weekend can be full of productivity as well as relaxation (and not going out so late...). There is a plan in the works to go to the Parque de Buen Retiro and I would personally love to go to the Plaza Mayor and see what its all about. Soon I'll post about my trip to Ikea yesterday and put up some pictures (I feel like my blog is lacking without them). Buenas noches.

Day 14, except each day feels like two.

First: La Noche en Blanco
We looked at the website and found an event that looked really cool in Legazpí. Of course, we didn’t look up exactly where I was, but luckily (or skillfully) we walked right by it! The building itself was interesting; we thought part of it might be an old church based on our superior knowledge of architecture from one of our classes. By “we” I mean five other people from the program and myself. The exhibit we were looking for was about Super Mario Bros., its creator, and Nintendo. There were stations with Wiis set up to play games ranging from classic Donkey Kong to the brand new. There were also a lot of really entertaining hanging graphic designs featuring Mario, Luigi, and other characters. There was more going on in that particular building “complex” than I can properly describe, but one other event we found was a screening of a film called “Forward Motion” and now our current life goal is to see the whole movie because it was just that astoundingly creepy and odd. Later, we headed back to the city center area and followed music until we found a ton of people grouped together. Important info: many streets were closed off for the event, and there were a lot of people out everywhere. We walked up Gran Via and found a giant tire swing (think eight people) hanging from a crane, slides, and huge seesaws. Unfortunately, the lines were too long for us, but we did end up going to McDonalds (of which there are many locations in the Madrid area, along with Starbucks, Burger King, and one TGIFridays which surprised me a lot!), haha. I don’t regret it at all because I got a McFlurry and it was amazing. By some miracle we walked right up to the bus we wanted. It was late, and people were still going strong; I think that is a true representation of the energy of the city (or how everyone is crazy here).

Today:
So. many. mullets.
A lot stores in Madrid have their wares behind counters and not out for you to look through yourself, which, as many of you know, completely goes against my shopping style. I have to pick things up, look at/through them for much longer than is actually necessary. Today I went to a papelería; aside from being a paper store (literal translation) they have notebooks, agendas, folders, and other various supplies that make it seem like a micro Office Depot. I told the man at the counter I wanted an agenda but I didn’t know which kind. He then proceeded to take down ten varieties and I had to choose right them and there, talk about stressful! Haha.
I took my time walking back from the appointment with the husband and wife dueños (landlady/landlord/this is easier in Spanish) of the apartment I’m living in, and I love the area even more. It is worth the ten-minute walk to the metro station. In said meeting, I signed the contract, paid the fianza (deposit) and the rent for September, and I got my keys! It is so surreal that I am going to be legitimately living here.

I've decided that since there is waaaaay to much that has happened to go into great detail, I'm going to make a list of things that I've discovered. However, we did take a day trip to Segiovia last Sunday that you get to hear about. The 44 of us in the program took a big bus which took about an hour because we had to go of course go through the mountains. Our guide (who is also our professor for the art and architecture section of our 'curso intensivo') told us that going by train through the Sierra takes 25 minutes. One of the first things we saw was an aqueduct; it is purely astounding that it is still standing without anything holding the stones together. A lot of areas are really touristy, but is is a beautiful town with small cobblestone streets and a stunning cathedral.
1. They are super serious about their ham. There is some sort of ham product in almost every meal they serve in the dorm we're temporarily staying in, and there was even ham on a vegetable sandwich that I got.
2. The milk is processed in a different way than in the US and until it is opened it is not refrigerated. WHAT.
3. The merto is your best friend...until it closes at 1:30 in the morning.
4. Diet Coke is Coca-Cola Light, it doesn't taste the same!
5. Spaniards don't want to admit it if they don't know where something is, to they will tell you to go two blocks and ask there. Just wait til they walk away and ask someone else.
6. Madrileños really are night owls. I hear that there are still people in line to get into clubs at 3am!
7. Stores and restaurants have pig legs hanging on the walls...I told you about the ham thing, right?
8. People drink wine and Coke together...?
9. There are a lot of bad drivers.
10. When people come up to you to try to entice you to go to their clup with coupons, the best thing to do is ignore them.
11. I still can't believe I'm living here!
Fortunately, I now have a place to live when we have to move out of the Colegio Mayor on Wednesday! I haven't met the people that live there, but I know it will be all students and the apartment itself is really well kept and in a nice area. Also, there is no smoking! I had pretty much given up on making that a requirement, thankfuly I didn't have to sacrifice my lung health. A few people in the program found places that they really like that aren't available until October 1, so they are looking at staying in a hostel for two weeks. It really isn't as scarry as it sounds. Our curso intensivo classes started on Monday. We have to go through everything so fast and, yes, there are exams...merrrrr. Things are going pretty smoothly now that we have a schedule and pretty much know our way around. Tomorrow night is an event called 'La noche en blanca' that is supposed to be a huge cultural experience. They line a lot of streets with bright lights, museums are open and there are a lot of other arts related events that I can't currently recal. Hopefully you'll get to hear about it on Sunday. ¡Buenas tardes!

Finding My Way

At the end of my third day in Spain, jet lag is waning and I have used the metro (which is really nice, by the way)! I also got a pre-pay cell phone, which will aid immensely in my next big goal, which is to find an apartment. What I am hoping to do tomorrow after our language placement exam is to make some calls and get appointments to see some “habitaciones” on Saturday. Something kind of cool that happened this morning was when I was walking from la Facultad de Geografía e Historia (the building where Reunidas, my program, is located) with Lindsay and Mary (from Tulane) when a woman asked us where a building was, and we knew! That at leas means that we don’t look completely like hopeless foreigners! Also, at dinner, one of the Spanish students came to our table and asked for our soup and then kissed the face on the Obama shirt he was wearing, that was pretty funny. I think said event may have had to do with the practice of “novatear”, or initiation of the new students in the building called “novatos”. I’m really glad that I brought my eastern wisdom day-by-day calendar; here is today’s quote,
“Life is a song…sing it.
Life is a game…play it.
Life is a challenge…meet it.
Life is a dream…realize it.
Life is a sacrifice…offer it.
Life is love…enjoy it.” –Sai Baba.
It reminds me that, even when being over here feels difficult, I just have to keep on going and doing things well.