Mi fin de semana favorito

Wow, what a weekend! This weekend, a whole slew of people from our group went to Rome, Italy... but I stayed with a few to relax. This was one of my few free weekends.

To start, on Friday, we had our arte class at the Museo del Prado, the most famous museum in Spain. There are what... 4 floors? We only visited two rooms out of the entire 3 buildings, but it was truly amazing. We specialized in neo-classisism and barroque paintings of El Greco and Ribero. After that, I ended up taking a 4 hour nap and then met up to get icecream and sat around at the Palacio de Cristal, which is the crystal palace in the Parque del Retiro, the huge park by my house.

That night, walking around town around midnight with some friends, we heard a concert happening some 10 blocks away, so we happened our way to a huge convention tent! There was a group called Melocos, which is a boy-rocker band geared towards teenagers. We enjoyed that for a while, and then went home, having spent an enjoyable evening out while spending NOTHING! :)

The next day, I slept in like crazy. This weekend was a Festival in this town a 45-minute train ride away called Alcala de Henares. The festival celebrated Miguel Cervantes, Don Quixote, and Medieval markets... so going there meant a half-mile long open medieval market, with food carts, hand-crafted jewelry, and thousands of visitors. As you can see in the picture, that cheese was as big as coffee pots, and the employees were dressed in traditional garb. I can't believe how we were able to make it there, knowing only the name of the town, and nothing else. We somehow found the train, walked into the center of town, and enjoyed everything there. We had a blast, and ate homemade chocolate, dried fruits, and much more. In fact, Alcala de Henares has its own university, which is so beautifully built that we study it in Art class!

After a long day of walking, we made it home to take a siesta and eat some non-sugary food. That night, we went to a friend's house and watched an incredible french-canadian movie called Les Invasiones Barbaras... I recommend it. Very sad, but moving.

On Sunday, we woke up pretty early (11am... early for a day I'd like to sleep in more) to go to El Rastro, which is the biggest flea market in Spain that happens every Sunday from 8am to 2pm. However, today was also a national holidy... 12 de Octubre... the day Columbus discovered America! As I walked out of my house to get to the metro, 7 jets speeded overhead, spewing out pink and yellow and white smokes in a gorgeous V-formation. I had no idea.

Unfortunately, I forgot that there was a parade, and when we took the bus to get the El Rastro, we encountered tons of traffic, so we abandoned ship and took the metro finally. Having arrived an hour later than planned, there were thousands of people walking through El Rastro. It was overwhelming and stressful!! You had to keep your bag close to you (because there are a lot of pickpocketers) all the while bumping into people going every which way. You can hardly walk to see the tiendas you want to see, because there are just too many people. It's increible. Note: El Rastro in spanish means the red trail/stain of blood left by slaughtered animals, and in this case, the slaughter of bulls.

Tonight I have to study for my first Spanish exam. I'm currently learning outdated analogy phrases. I know they're outdated because I'm also taking a Colloquial Spanish class, so I know what's "in use" and not in use, haha. For example, you are more stubborn than a mule, or this place is louder than a henhouse. Oy... Talk to you luego, loyal readers!

He tardado.... lo siento!

Back again! Sorry I've taken so long to update, there has been a lot going on. Classes are in full swing, and I have homework in every class every day. It's pretty intenso, although it's not impossible to achieve. During the week, my classes are really early... with the hour commute, I've been waking up so early.

We also had a day trip to Toledo with our group, which means our coordinator and a tour guide came with us. We saw the famous cathedral, along with the many works of the famous painter, El Greco. He was actually greek, but spent a lot of his life living in Toledo. His obras were incredible, and I enjoyed the trip a lot. The only disappointing aspect was that we were there from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., having had an extravagant lunch. However, we were scheduled to see some other museum that was unexpectedly unavailable, and instead of staying to walk around Toledo, we went straight home, having had no time to look around.

Also, this past weekend, we went on a walking tour of the old city of Madrid, the Austrian area. It was a gorgeous day out, perfectly sunny, with everyone flocking to the center of town. There were street violin musicians playing Beethoven, tables of crafts for sale, street artists (the ones that stand really still like statues and when you pay them, they'll suddenly break out of pose and move), and tons of people with their dogs. We had lunch at a posh restaurant, a place I would have never considered.

Let's see... in my clase de arte, we've visited 2 museums so far. We visited the Museo Arquiologico and the Palacio Real, even though the king doesn't actually live there anymore. The Palacio Real is so extravagant and overly ornate (derroche o recargado) that you'd have to spend at least 20 minutes in each room to be able to see every piece of art there is. So awesome!

I also had an intercambio with a Peruvian student who is at Carlos 3 getting her Masters in Pharmacology. However, there seeemed to be a misunderstanding with the word intercambio, because she didn't speak any english! Usually, students speak half in spanish, half in english, so that both can take advantage of a native to practice with. She was under the impression that I would teach her, from scratch, how to speak english. I'm going to try my hardest, and my first tutoring session is tomorrow, even though it's not mandatory that I help her. She was very sweet, offering to cook me a traditional dinner and introduce me to some of her masters' friends.

I've been having a little trouble with some things here or there, so please send me some kind words if you can. I miss you all.