La noche en blanco...

Hola! Looking back now, I see that I've only been in Madrid for 1 full week, but it feels like I've been here a month! I'm a pro at the Metro (not so much with the Autobuses), I don't always need my map (when I'm going places I recognize), and I feel like I've been to a million cafes around the city. But it has only been 1 week! I start classes tomorrow el lunes, and my schedule is a little crazy. 4 of the 5 days of the week, I start by 10:00 a.m., and if anyone knows me well, it's that I NEVER make it to early class. Unfortunately, attendance here is obligatorio, so here comes grumpy Sarah every morning. One good thing is that there is this sandwich store near campus that makes the biggest and best sandwiches in the world for very little money. And the ladies that work there are such sweethearts. They call everyone corazon and reina. It's endearing.

The week has been busy... findning my way around the city, drinking way too much coffee. On Friday we went on a double decker bus tour of the city. It was SOOO cold out, but we saw lots. After that we found a cute cafe with the best bocadillos I've had yet. The bread was warm and soft (yet crunchy), and the jamon serrado was amazing.

This week, I also explored the Parque del Retiro, the huge park near my house, with some friends. It's so big that it's impossible not to get lost there. There are beautiful fountains everywhere and people rollerskating and biking and running. The only bad thing about this park is that I live on the wrong side of it in terms of having uninterrupted access to Madrid. Anywhere I go, I have to hop on at least 2 different metro lines to circumvent the park and get to the center of the city. When I leave with enough extra time, I can walk through and enjoy it. There is also a huge pond/lake in the center, and you can rent rowboats for 4 euros. They stock the pond with fish and ducks, and la gente is always feeding the animals.

On Friday, we went out for a night on the town, spanish style. We went to a few bars and a discoteca. The only disadvantage was trying to find a mode of transporte on the way home. The Metro closes at 1:30a.m. and the buses are elusive in that there is no comprehensive schedule that you can read! Either you know your stop and all the stops near you AND the corresponding bus numbers, there is no way to get home. That being said, at 5:30a.m., exhausted and achy from walking, I hopped on a bus that I thought was going to Principe de Vergara, which is a metro stop not so far from me. Instead bus took me to La calle de Principe de Vergara, about 3 miles up the road. I didn't know where I was so I had to take a taxi, which was extremely expensive. Live and learn!

Another exciting happening was La Noche en Blanco, a city-wide event that was increible. The premise of this activity was that the city doesn't sleep. From (I think) 9pm to 7am, the city has tons of activities going on. All the museums are open and gratis, so you don't have to pay anything. The metro stays open until 3:00a.m., and the streets are closed off for pedestrian walking (I'm talking the MAIN streets like the Gran Via). Aside from the free museums, most restaurants and bars are open to compensate for all the people. There are also hundreds of booths and open-air art expositions around the streets, which were published in a magazine with a map of which activities were where. In the past 2-3 years, only 1.5 million people attended, but this year the number was estimated at 3 million.

Of course, I attended. Our group had gone for tapas that evening, so I decided to leave directly after dinner. The metro was PACKED. There was no room to even hold on a rail, there were so many people crammed into the trains. The trains were slower because of the added weight, as well as open longer at each parada because peoples limbs were blocking the doors from closing. Once we got out of the metro, it was super slow even walking up onto the street because of the hundreds of thousands of people. The foot traffic was unbelievable.

Last night we decided to meet up with our spaniard friend, because maybe they would know the best places to go during the madhouse of an acontecimiento (event). My host father explained that it would be crazy, with the tons of foot traffic, and that it would be nearly impossible to enter any museums because of the long lines. He was correct. However, while we were waiting for Carlos and his friends, we were in front of the city hall (I think) watching modern art at work. The gigantic building had red blobs projected on it, and we heard weird noises echoing throughout the streets. First we thought they were red blood cells, then donuts. We soon realized that the red blobs being projected at a HUGE scale on that building were lips, kisses, and the sounds we heard were kissy noises. It was WAY COOL.

When we finally met up, we walked a ton to some exposition. Here, on the steps of a museum, where hundreds of candles surrounding a man in his underwear. This piece of art was interactive. Anyone who wanted to could take a candle and pour wax on the man. The poor hombre was shivering from the cold, and wincing each time the wax touched a bare patch of skin. I don't think he was allowed to move at all. It was a very moving piece of art... some of my friends were disturbed.

We soon ducked out to grab some churros y chocolate, which were delicious. When we stepped back out onto the street, the wax was even more accumulated on this man. So interesting!! By then I was tired and afraid that I wouldn't be able to get home before the metro closed at three, so I hopped on the metro and went home to sleep.

Here I am on Sunday, and class starts manana. Tonight there is a soccer game on tv, and a few of us want to go to a bar to watch it (to possibly meet some spaniards). I had a great lunch, and I'm still going over all the cool stuff I saw last night, along with the other 3 million people. Until later!