Una semana super madrileña

This was a great week, largely because I saw several new things in Madrid that I had been wanting to see, got to go back to some of my favorite places, and spent time with some fab people. Here are some photos!

 The cathedral outside of the Palacio Real (Royal palace). On Wednesday, instead of our usual 2-hour class with our director Ramiro, we toured the Palacio Real, which is beautiful! While the current King doesn't actually live there, they do still hold affairs of state in the palace. It was also nice to have a change of pace--that 5-7 pm class off-campus, coming after a dayfull of classes at Carlos III can definitely drag on. However, before class, we usually go to 100 Monteditos, a Spanish chain that has bocadillos (small sandwiches) and drinks, all at 1 euro each on Wednesdays, which is fun.

La Coquette, a tiny jazz/blues bar in Sol that I randomly found when looking for live music online. It ended up being awesome, we definitely want to go back!

On Friday, we had a paseo with our Wash U class. In the morning, we walked around the Atocha area and talked about the Madrid de los Borbones--gardens, etc that were built by the Borbons. We had a break in between that and another visit to the Prado, where we saw more Goya work from that time period, as well as some other pieces. During our break...

First we went and had coffee at the cafe in Circulo de Bellas Artes (from the 19th century), which is very elegant and has an especially gorgeous ceiling. Picasso used to hang out and take classes there back in the day. Classy.

 

Eliana, Ben, and Judy on the stairs in the actual Circulo de Bellas Artes, a building with art exhibits, film series, theater, etc. We climbed all the way to the top floor, but the rooftop which apparently has a beautiful view, was closed.

An piece from an exhibition in Bellas Artes, which was art inspired by pieces of literature.

Then, we got some lunch at a small place with food from the region of Galicia. My friends got some octopus and other seafood, that they said was delicious. Bobby contemplating the adorable menu.

Shared desserts at Maceira: some chocolate-covered cookies with coconut, crepe-like things filled with Nata (cream), and flan. yumyum.

Judy at what we think could be the world's shortest ATM. In the moment it was exremely amusing, and we had fun trying to guess why it is so impractical/booty-drop friendly.

This week was also Wash U's spring break, so there were so many people from our school here in Madrid. It was funny to be out at clubs on Thursday/Friday nights and see dance floors packed with Wash U. It was really nice to see my friend Emily here in Madrid, as the last time I saw her we were overlapping for a few weeks in Chile: I was finishing my summer program, and she was beginning her Fall semester abroad.

My first mini-course, on the History of Terrorism, finished this past week. I turned in a 14 page paper on Al- Qaeda and took the 8 essay question final exam (thank goodness I just need to pass).  While I was now supposed to be starting my language class, the scheduling got messed up and turns out I won't be taking any language class after all. Instead, I am going to take another mini-course called "Europa y Estados Unidos Entre Dos Guerras", which will hopefully be an interesting history class about the time period between World Wars I and II.

Amy's birthday dinner on Friday night. After, we went to Kapital, a ridiculous but fun 7-story club.

 

Sunday morning, we ran into these musicians when went to El Rastro, a weekly giant street market. 

A cable car that runs over the Parque del Oeste, that we rode on Sunday afternoon.

View from the way up. There was a great view of the mountains and so much greenery, right on the west side of the city.

Bobby and me at the top of the Teleférico. 

It was so lovely out on Sunday afternoon. At the top with Caitlin and Alex.

There are some trails at the top, and Alex and I have already talked about going back to hike around.

Sun setting on our way down.

The pond in parque Retiro at night. Sunday evening, after the Teleferico, Eliana and I got off the metro on the other side of the park from our apartment and walked home. It was such a fresh, crisp night and there were lots of people out. We saw a fire juggler (he was bad at it, but also adorable so it's all good), people of all ages running/walking/practicing roller blading tricks (it's kind of a big deal here..haha). We passed a cafeteria full of older people right near our apartment and once again, noticed the old tradition of gathering in a local, neighborhood cafeteria alive and well in Madrid--as well as the abundancy of older people constantly out and about on the train, on the streets, and in restaurants/cafes, etc.

Last night, I met up again with Ana, a girl I met through a program with the university called Intercambios. I was paired up with a Spanish girl from my school, and the point is to speak in both English and Spanish (so we both get to practice), as well as to meet someone new, of course. I have now met up with her 3 times, and we get along really well. She is 24, and is doing a 1-year masters program at my school in Human Rights. The first time I met her I went to her apartment, where her and her roommate were interviewing for a new roommate. In just an hour or so, I was there for about 5 of the prospective new roomies, so they told me I could get a 'vote' in who they should choose. My favorite was a long-haired, gay Argentinian pilates instructor with a nose ring who talked a million miles a minute and was so excited when I knew what "palta" (the Chilean/Argentinian word for avocado) was ("Miravos! Como sabes esta palabra?"..while I'm thinking, how did you start talking about avocados? and can I take your pilates class..fo free?), but while entertaining, he might have been a bit overwhelming as a roommate. I also met a Polish couple and two Italian girls, and they ended up going with one of the Italians.

Last night we went for a drink and Ana told me how she recently spent 2 full years living and working in a village called Bangassou in the Central African Republic, and she has fascinating stories from her time there, such as how there was one road (unpaved) from Bangassou to the capital, Bangui, and even though it was about 500 km away, it would take a few days to get there. She learned how to speak Sangho, the local language besides French, and while she is not religious, worked through a Jesuit program because they are the only ones doing work there. She told me that it because there were very limited ways to contact people from home, it was definitely hard at times, but she is very happy she did it. Last night we spent some time talking about her experiences there, and communal sentiment about politics in our countries, and even about the attack on a Madrid cercanias (the commuter rail that I take to schoole every day) by Al-Qaeda in 2004 (luckily I knew all about that in some detail from the paper I wrote a few days ago).

I am definitely looking forward to the next couple of weeks. My good friend from home, Darcy, who is studying abroad in Barcelona, is coming to visit me in Madrid this weekend! Then, the weekend after that is the beginning of Spring Break, and my family will be here in Madrid eeeee! This will be my first big trip with my family in a long time, and I know it will be fabulous. I will go with the whole fam and a friend of mine, Amy, to Paris to explore and see my mom's friends from when she studied abroad in Caen, and then Amy and I will meet up with a bunch of friends in Berlin for the last couple days of break.

*Also--last weekend I went to Córdoba and Sevilla, two beautiful cities in southern spain (in the region Andalucía, like Granada). I will definitely write about that trip soon!