Wow, I've got a lot to update on! So much has happened in the last couple of days but I've been so busy since I've started classes.
Last Saturday was Madrid's Carnaval celebration. We went to Plaza Mayor on Friday to see if there was a parade, but it was just a little event. The cool part was that I got to see Plaza Mayor for the first time at night. It was beautiful! If you haven't read much about Spain before, Plaza Mayor is an old old olllddd plaza, like 1589-old. They used to hold bullfights, soccer games, markets, trials, and even public executions there. Rumor has it that you can still see the blood on the walls from the bullfights...ahhh I don't think I'm about to go looking for it, though!
Speaking of gross, Carrie and I went to lunch at school the other day and she ordered something at random, Callos de Madrileño. What is a callo, you might ask? Well, it's tripe. And if you don't know what tripe is, it's animal stomach :S Oh my lord that was gross! I was just eating a ham sandwich but I felt so sorry for her. She braved through it for about half of the plate, then gave up. Actually, she deserves a medal for that.
I don't mean to make the food sound gross here, because the food here has been delicious otherwise! On Friday at Plaza Mayor, we went to our first real tapas bar, and it was delicious! I got to try sangria too, which is definitely my new favorite drink. The Manchego cheese here is delicious, and so is the paella. They also served olives (with pits!) when we sat down, just as a standard.
Woops, I got kinda off-track there. Anyway, on Saturday Carrie and I went shopping on Gran Via and then came back for the parade. Gran Via is basically the equivalent of Broadway or Michigan Avenue. There were so many stores! I bought a few Spanish things too, so now I don't stick out quite as much as I used to. Finally, Saturday night, we got to watch the parade, and it was beyond amazing!! There were people walking on stilts, people doing backflips on bouncy stilts, so many old cars, crazy awesome floats, and movie characters too!
This week, I finished up my intensive-Spanish class. The whole class meets for 45 hours and this intensive part met for 15 out of the 45 hours in just 5 days, so that was a bit of work. My Spanish is getting a lot better, though. I can at least communicate what I want to say, although it's really difficult to express myself. I'm almost a different person in Spanish than I am in English, which is really weird.
I found out a few days ago that I don't have enough hours and have to add another class, so everyone, cross your fingers for me and hope I get into another one! They really hate schedule changes here, and it's all done by hand because they hate computers for some reason. It's like the dark ages here...just kidding! But yeah, hopefully this all works out.
Oh yeah, yesterday I went to the Reina Sofia art museum with a friend from Spanish class, Kruse, and it was awesome! We saw Guernica by Picasso, which was definitely very cool in real life. I could look at that for ages; there was so much detail. A lot of other parts of the museum were modern art, most of which Kruse and I did not understand. They did have a cool exhibit on 1970's mod furniture. That I can understand!
Today, I was planning on getting up early and going to this huge outdoor flea market, El Rastro, but when I woke up, it was pouring rain. Personally, I'm not a fan of getting wet, so I decided to just stay in for the day and work on homework and summer job applications. We're about to start lunch soon, I think, and they have guests over, so I get to practice my Spanish even more, albeit in a really intimidating setting. But, at the same time, having guests over means she serves really delicious/rare/expensive food...kind of a reward for all my hard work, right? :)
Looks like we're eating! Hasta luego, amigos!
Showing posts with label Carnaval. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carnaval. Show all posts
Friday, February 19, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Class, Culture, and Fashion!
Woo, I have a little time to write!!
The last few days have been absolutely crazy! Carrie, the other girl living with my host family, got here on Monday at 2 and I've pretty much been busy since then! The first night she was here, we explored the neighborhood a little more and got to see Parque del Oeste. Nieves emphasizes that you can jog there (she pretends to jog and be out of breath whenever she reminds me of this hahah.) Anyway, Carrie and I are 99% alike, and it's super cool :D
My orientation was crazy too, but at least that went by really fast. Everyone was stressed when we started talking about changing your schedule!! I get stressed from other people being stressed, so by the end of the day, I was stressed too, and I don’t even have to change my schedule.
My first class started yesterday, my Spanish class for exchange students. It’s great because we’re mostly all the same level of Spanish, so if we struggle, it’s okay, because most of the time we know what the other person means. And the professor is so nice! This is really weird to say but she reminds me a lot of Miss Grotke from the TV show Recess. Ahahah, nerd alert! Anyway, the class is easy so far, but we have to go through a week of “intensive” Spanish, which means class is every day for 3 hours straight. It can be a little boring, but I’m actually doing well.
Fashion! Oh the fashion. All the boys reading this can just skip over this paragraph since it’s girly stuff. Here’s what’s in: purple, black, scarves, tall boots, and tights. Seriously, there is so much black and purple here, it’s almost bizarre. Scarves and black tights are almost a necessity with outfits. Everyone and their mother have a pair of tall boots. And black is what outfits are based upon. This is the winter season clothing though; now that we’re coming into spring/summer season, the stores are putting up a lot of khaki, white, and lighter colors. So far I’ve bought a Spanish designer purse from Salvador Bachiller, a leather jacket from Stradivarius, a skirt from Zara, and short boots from El Corte Ingles. It’s stuff I wouldn’t normally wear in the United States, but I love it 8)
Culture! Wow, things are different here! I can’t even begin to explain all the differences. Things are similar to the United States here, but not, at the same time. The toilets flush weird. Everybody owns a washing machine in their kitchen, but nobody owns a drier: they just hang clothes to dry in the courtyard. They iron EVERYTHING because it all dries funny from hanging on a clothesline. They have blinds outside the windows in the bedrooms, which makes it really dark in the rooms, if the blinds are shut. I can’t even tell if the sun is up yet when I get up in the morning, even if it’s already 10:00.
Oh, and sometimes, the water shuts off. (I’ve only seen it once, but it was really bizarre. I went to turn on a faucet and all that came out was an airy, creepy sound.) The city is supplied from aquifers in all of the parks, and there’s a monitor of the water there. Sometimes, if people are too wasteful with water, the city shuts the water off for a little while to scare the crap out of everyone. Generally this works, but it creates some other odd customs. Nieves always keeps two giant bottles of water in the refrigerator, because if the water turns off and you’re thirsty…well…
Man, I’m tired! I went to Carnaval today (that’s the Spanish way of spelling it,) and it was so awesome. But I’ll write about that later since I’m about to pass out. Hasta luego!
The last few days have been absolutely crazy! Carrie, the other girl living with my host family, got here on Monday at 2 and I've pretty much been busy since then! The first night she was here, we explored the neighborhood a little more and got to see Parque del Oeste. Nieves emphasizes that you can jog there (she pretends to jog and be out of breath whenever she reminds me of this hahah.) Anyway, Carrie and I are 99% alike, and it's super cool :D
My orientation was crazy too, but at least that went by really fast. Everyone was stressed when we started talking about changing your schedule!! I get stressed from other people being stressed, so by the end of the day, I was stressed too, and I don’t even have to change my schedule.
My first class started yesterday, my Spanish class for exchange students. It’s great because we’re mostly all the same level of Spanish, so if we struggle, it’s okay, because most of the time we know what the other person means. And the professor is so nice! This is really weird to say but she reminds me a lot of Miss Grotke from the TV show Recess. Ahahah, nerd alert! Anyway, the class is easy so far, but we have to go through a week of “intensive” Spanish, which means class is every day for 3 hours straight. It can be a little boring, but I’m actually doing well.
Fashion! Oh the fashion. All the boys reading this can just skip over this paragraph since it’s girly stuff. Here’s what’s in: purple, black, scarves, tall boots, and tights. Seriously, there is so much black and purple here, it’s almost bizarre. Scarves and black tights are almost a necessity with outfits. Everyone and their mother have a pair of tall boots. And black is what outfits are based upon. This is the winter season clothing though; now that we’re coming into spring/summer season, the stores are putting up a lot of khaki, white, and lighter colors. So far I’ve bought a Spanish designer purse from Salvador Bachiller, a leather jacket from Stradivarius, a skirt from Zara, and short boots from El Corte Ingles. It’s stuff I wouldn’t normally wear in the United States, but I love it 8)
Culture! Wow, things are different here! I can’t even begin to explain all the differences. Things are similar to the United States here, but not, at the same time. The toilets flush weird. Everybody owns a washing machine in their kitchen, but nobody owns a drier: they just hang clothes to dry in the courtyard. They iron EVERYTHING because it all dries funny from hanging on a clothesline. They have blinds outside the windows in the bedrooms, which makes it really dark in the rooms, if the blinds are shut. I can’t even tell if the sun is up yet when I get up in the morning, even if it’s already 10:00.
Oh, and sometimes, the water shuts off. (I’ve only seen it once, but it was really bizarre. I went to turn on a faucet and all that came out was an airy, creepy sound.) The city is supplied from aquifers in all of the parks, and there’s a monitor of the water there. Sometimes, if people are too wasteful with water, the city shuts the water off for a little while to scare the crap out of everyone. Generally this works, but it creates some other odd customs. Nieves always keeps two giant bottles of water in the refrigerator, because if the water turns off and you’re thirsty…well…
Man, I’m tired! I went to Carnaval today (that’s the Spanish way of spelling it,) and it was so awesome. But I’ll write about that later since I’m about to pass out. Hasta luego!
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