hola Madrid! i like you a lot

After a week in smaller, historical Granada, coming back to begin our long-term stay in Madrid was like a breath of fresh air. It's vibrant and exciting and overwhelming. We spent this past week beginning to orient ourselves in the city, taking the Metro and walking around. I think the best way to get to know a place is definitely on foot. We've seen some really cool areas in just one week by just choosing a metro stop in a certain area, walking in a certain way, getting a little lost, then finding our way back to something we recognize (or even another Metro stop, they're such good reference points).

Last week we had orientation at the university for a few days. In terms of classes, we are required to take one off-campus Spanish culture class with our program director Ramiro, who works through Wash U, and then we choose four more on-campus classes. The remaining four still all in Spanish but are divided in between Cursos de Estudios Hispanicos--a branch at the university with a set of classes specifically for us foreign kids--and the regular mainstream classes. Seems easy enough, but turns out the mainstream classes are divided as well. There's some short 2-month intensive classes, an old curriculum called Lisenciatura that is being phased out for a new Grados curriculum (the new European Union system for universities), and other confusing things. Finding times that all coordinate or classes that are appropriate has actually been weirdly frustrating. This week we can go to classes that interest us, and we don't have to decide for sure until the weekend, which is nice. As of right now, I'm registered for a Politics and Society class, New Social Problems 4 (from the Licensiatura classes), and a Spanish short story class. We are also required to take a language course through the foreign kids department, but I am getting the opportunity to take a class on Techniques of Oral and Written Expression in the regular Grados classes..eek scary but hopefully useful.  I am also talking to Ramiro about volunteering somewhere, which I want to get started with. Anyway, we'll see what happens with all of that. While I know and always believe school is important, I'm also definitely a believer that you can learn just as much outside of school as in..especially in a situation like this!!

I was really looking forward to living with a host family again, after my wonderful family last summer in Santiago, and I can tell this will be a distinct yet great situation too. After just a few days I'm quickly becoming used to and looking forward to dinner every night with Gloria, Daniela, and Eliana--our chance to talk about the day, which usually means Daniela telling as many stories and jokes (great because many of them are puns so I learn new words/phrases) as possible before Gloria tells her the girls need to talk too. A few times now Eliana and I have sat at the table for a long time after dinner, talking to Gloria about life, Spain, her heartbreaks, making the choice to adopt and become a mother...everything. She's had several students over the past couple years but this is her first time having two at once, and she said she's rarely had conversations like this with them in the past. Gloria is a psychologist and a theater teacher..she's smart and hip yet definitely wise. I'm really happy to be in her home, I have a lot to learn from her and Daniela.

Here's a few areas in my new city that I've explored with friends the past week:

Chueca--very hip and trendy gay neighborhood, with lots of stores and swanky-dressed people. lots of incredible architecture too.

Ha look at the Starbucks that got in this picture...let's just say the Starbucks at which I was employed in Chicago's main gay neighborhood did not look nearly as..swankified. Love how Starbucks designs change to 'fit' into the neighborhood, very smart of them but is also funny.

Yummm the sign commands to "eat a lot of fruit" which is fine by me... I love me some fruit (and lovely places like this that sell it)

I was intrigued by the fact that a map could have a sexual orientation (ya learn somethin new every day), so I went in and asked for one. Turns out it's a list of good gay locations in the neighborhood and city.

Tribunal apparently has good taste for hot dogs..haven't eaten one in about 8 years, but they're good from what I remember (Chi town what uppp)

Plaza de España--very bustling and has a nice plaza/park. We went to see a movie in this neighborhood over the weekend. It was an Argentinean movie called "El Secreto de sus Ojos", about a man investigating a murder case he has had open for 25 years, told in combination of flashback and present day. It is super passionate and really well-done, I'd recommend it for sure.

Eliana and I went for a walk through Parque del Retiro, a huge and gooorgeous park that we can get to a block from our apartment. We walked across it to the Salamanca neighborhood, and came across some beautiful churches.

Group of guys playing outside the Metro station in Sol, a central shopping area that has a lot of good bars and clubs, too.

While this says it's a Ham Museum (and believe me, if there were to be a ham museum anywhere, it would be in this country), it's luckily just a restaurant on a huge street called Gran Vía.

Eliana and me out this weekend..not the best picture but I don't have many of us and I want you to see who she is!

We had a fun first weekend here, and the nightlife is cray crayyy! Since dinner is so late (usually around 10 but our family eats on the earlier side, around 9) people don't even think about leaving home until at least 12 or 1, at which point it's time to hit the streets, and drink in them. Even though it's winter, people "botellon" (drink in public with a group of friends) before going out to a bar or a discotech. Think I really started joining Madridleño (I just learned how to do the symbol over the n, isn't that cute? probably would have helped me in all these years of writing Spanish essays...sigh) life when I learned to stay out until 6 am so you don't have to take a cab, as that's when the Metro reopens. The funny thing about being out at 6ish at a Chocolateria after a night out is that you'd expect it to be mostly people around my age, but we literally saw people of all ages, including a 75+ year old couple canoodling at 5 in the morning there. Adorable and so funny..but hey way to live it up!

So that's that, and I have so much more to see! The weather has been cold, but not Chicago cold, which makes for good walking-around weather...and the sun was out today, which made me smile! Looking forward to actually knowing my class schedule, talking more to Ramiro about finding a place to volunteer, and getting to see more of the city. Thanks for reading through this..tryin to get a little of everything in there! besos

First week in Spain: Granada

Here I am, exactly a week after arriving in Spain, sitting in my host family's apartment, on my bed in the room I share with Eliana--another junior at Wash U who is an awesome person all around.

Last Monday I said goodbye to all the Texas fam, flew from Houston to Philadelphia, then connected a couple hours later to my overnight flight to Madrid. I sat down in my row of 2 on the left side of the plane, a seat that I had chosen at random when I bought the ticket, ready to kick it and zone out for a good 7 hours. Right then, a guy about my age came and slid in next to me, and was honestly one of the most talkative people I've ever met. I am a big fan of talking to strangers, but daaang. He wins. He told me where he was from and that he was heading to study abroad in Sevilla, and it didn't take long for us to realize he was also one of my Wash U friend's high school ex (craaazy coincidence), which made for some fun conversation. He was super friendly and was very into showing me how funny the show he was watching was, on the tiny little screen in front of his seat ("You HAVE to see this. Do you mind?"), reached over to take some coconut shavings off my little fruit salad that came with the flight dinner ("OH it's coconut! I have no personal bubble..I'm sorry" to which I quickly responded I went to jew camp, it's all good) All in all a more active flight experience then I've had in a while, but entertaining nonetheless.

I arrived in Madrid around 10 am on Tuesday, then got to go take my stuff to the host fam's and hang out there for about 3 hours, before it was time for my train to Granada. Our apartment is tiny and cozy, We live with our mama Gloria, and our host sister Daniela, an adorable 9-year-old who is incredibly smart and hilarious. OH and we can't forget the hamster, Caramelo..Daniela would be upset if I left him out. That whole first day was a haze, but I met Gloria and got to have lunch with her before leaving. She is extremely dynamic and warm and sassy, and definitely has her own way of doing things. The apartment is colorfully painted and stylized,  and Daniela takes after her personality a lot (I will take pictures of them and the apartment soon).

After a 4-5 hour train ride to Granada I finally made it to the hotel and arrived just as the group was starting off the night.  Although I hadn't slept in a few days I decided it would be fun to go out with the group..what's a few more hours right? Always an experience going out with 21 Americans in a foreign country. We had fun and the group was so welcoming to me, which I definitely appreciate!! We spent the week seeing the city in the mornings, and taking an 'intensive' class in the afternoons, which really meant four hours a day of learning any and every way to say the most useful and 'local' parts of the language, if you know what I mean. Definitely useful.

The week in Granada in photos:

 

Flamenco! We walked up to see Flamenco performed in an old cave transformed into a little restaurant and performance space. There were three musicians (guitar, flute, and vocalist) and three dancers (2 women and a man). Apparently the gypsy tradition that started flamenco took place in these caves. It is such a fiery, passionate dance. The music is incredible and I definitely want to see more of it here!

  

Granada, on our walk to class. It was pretty rainy most of the time, but still a cool-lookin city. The people in Granada were overall a bit cold, which some locals told us is because it is so small. It does have a really amazing Arab culture, and the food in that part was the best by far.

 

The beginning of the day of perfection... We spent Saturday in the small towns surrounding Granada.  They are in the Sierra Nevada mountains, so the towns are hilly and streets are very narrow. Our first stop was an old olive oil mill, and on our way back down we saw a water source, which comes down straight from the mountains. Our second stop was a vineyard, which was also beautiful.

 

On our way to lunch, we stopped on the side of the road to pick oranges. Juan, who was showing us around, moved with his wife and young sons from Madrid, where he has lived all his life, to a town of a thousand people. He told us that because oranges are so expensive to collect and are sold so cheaply, thousands are just left unpicked and are up for the taking. Yum!

 

After lunch, we went to Juan's pueblo, called Bunüel. Here women used to wash their laundry and gossip. Now, he says, although almost everyone has washing machines, many women still like to come and do their laundry here sometimes to keep the social part of it alive. 

A man in Bunüel.

 

Walking around the town. I asked Juan what it's like to enter a community where everyone knows each other, and has for generations..what it's like or if/how the people welcome you. He told me he's not gonna lie...it's HARD. People are nice, but he has little in common with a lot of them, especially the people who work in agriculture. He says that although he likes it here and doesn't want to go back to the city, they will always see him as somewhat of a foreigner.

 

I got distracted while Juan was talking by these kids playing..so obviously I wanted to play too! Didn't know my friend Ali was capturing the moment, haha.

 

Our last stop of the day was climbing up to the top of the town to have coffee at a house that belongs to an older couple, which is sometimes also a tiny hotel. They were so welcoming and had such interesting stories to tell. This is the view from their house, as the sun was setting. The houses are kept very white because it represents propriety and cleanliness, and Juan says they repaint their houses almost annually. It was honestly the most beautiful, peaceful day..one that my friends and I have talked about realizing we will remember it for a long long time.

LA ALHAMBRA: Since I was late, I missed the day the group went to the Alhambra. Luckily, we had a free day and my friends Allison and Krizia, who are on a different Wash U Spain program, came to visit and I went with them. Absolutely breathtaking.

And now it's back to Madrid! We got back yesterday, and we were ready to come back. I'm excited to get to know Madrid. Today we saw the campus of our school, Universidad de Carlos III for the first time, and this week is orientation. Besos, I miss you all!

de Tejas a Madrid!

Whenever I am about to experience some sort of big change or new experience, I find myself thinking of everything that had to happen or go right in order for me to be at this moment, right now. It's kinda crazy to think about.

Tomorrow I will leave from my cousin's beautiful wedding weekend in Houston to head to Spain, arriving a mere (oh-so-fashionable) 5 days late :)  I will arrive on Tuesday morning and go straight to Granada to meet up with the group for the rest of our orientation week, and try to start catching up on what I've missed!

I am so excited for this experience, especially knowing all that has led up to it and also knowing all the new things I will be able to see and do. Please do keep in touch while I'm there..I can't wait to hear from you!