The Mother Tongue

Class is in session! Last Friday was the final exam for our intensive Spanish class, meant to help us brush up on our skills after a summer of disuse. It was a little weird taking a final in September, usually when the first round of tests comes around, but it’s also kind of nice to be able to knock out a class so fast! With the end of that class, though, began the “real” classes. I’ve decided to be a bit of a slacker and only take four classes, but, hey, this is study abroad, right? I need a little break from the intense premed schedule/MCAT studying. Judging from this first week, I think my favorite two classes are going to be “Phonology,” where we learn the origin of the Spanish language and tackle all of its sounds (I’ll admit it, I’m kind of a linguistics dork), and “Women Models in Cervantine Works,” which, I think, is pretty self-explanatory. I hope they live up to my expectations in the weeks ahead!

With all this Spanish buzzing in my ears, though, I needed a little respite, which I found in the English-speaking café/bookstore called Bacchus, just a short metro ride away. It’s a great place and I snatched up two books: The Book of Evidence by John Banville and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (one of those books I’ve always wanted to read but have never had the gumption to tackle). For those of you who like great technical writing, a great story and have a little patience, I highly recommend The Book of Evidence (yea, I already finished it…).

The Book of Evidence and an eclair...does it get any better?

Not too much more to say, except that tomorrow morning, bright and early (heading out at 5:30 am!), I’ll be leavin’ on a jet plane for Italy to visit Pisa, Florence, and Rome. I’m a little worried about the hostel situation, which apparently only has a 60-something percent approval but was the cheapest (isn’t college life great?), but I’m sure it will turn out great. I’ll be sure to take a ton of pictures and come back with some good stories!

Spanish oddities

You know you’re in Madrid when…

…every other person smokes starting at the age of 14

…metro performers belt out Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On without actually knowing what the words mean

…shameless PDA is pretty much everywhere you look

…vespas don’t wait in traffic; they just weave through the idling cars

…the clubs don’t open until one in the morning

…eating churros with chocolate at 7am after an all-nighter is a common pastime

…a dog being walked on a leash is a foreign concept

…going up to a leg of ham and slicing off a piece is completely normal

…everything – except restaurants – are closed from 2pm to 5pm on weekdays and only churches are open on Sundays

…wearing flip-flops clearly marks you as a non-native

…people wearing backpacks on their front to avoid pickpocketing is a common sight

…you start craving croquetas and paella every day of the week

…lunch comes at three pm and dinner at nine

…cookies aren’t for dessert, they’re for breakfast! (and they're all "digestive")

…you can spend a day napping in Retiro and not feel like you’re slacking off

…mullets are the latest and hottest hairstyle

…double parking is so common that you don’t even really notice it anymore, at least until the blocked driver beeps their horn continuously for ten minutes

…you wonder what they’re going to bring you as a snack when you order a drink

…waiting lines are replaced by waiting crowds with no clear order

…meeting times are just suggestions

…drivers think that sitting with their hand on the horn will make traffic jams disappear

…milk is whole, comes in cartons, lasts for a few months and doesn’t have to be kept in the fridge

…one coffee can take one hour to drink, and the waiter doesn’t care

…personal conversations amongst employees are completely acceptable, even if you’re waiting for them to help you

…even waiters can take three or four week long vacations in the summer

…the appropriate greeting to a complete stranger of the opposite sex is a kiss on both cheeks

...commas are periods and periods are commas

…you run from a 700 pound bull for fun

Although I'm sure there are many more, these are all that I can think of right now. I'll update if I remember a critical one!

On this train and ain't slowin' down

These once-a-week updates just aren’t cutting it. The passing of seven days here is packed with as much excitement as a full month back home. Maybe it’s because Madrid is my first big-city home (over four million inhabitants), or maybe it’s because I’m still in the “honeymoon” stage of adaptation that we learned about in our “Culture Shock” workshop this week, but time sure does fly by.

I told you last week how excited I was to go see Picasso’s famous Guernica (highly encouraged read!) at the Reina Sofia Museum; let me just say, it lived up to all my expectations. Now as much a symbol of freedom from repression and a triumph of liberty as the Statue of Liberty herself, Guernica’s sheer size and profound message made it almost overwhelming to see. Of all the paintings and masterpieces we’ve seen so far here in Madrid, I would say that Guernica easily ranks at the top of my list.

Entrance to the Reina Sofia

The next exciting event of the week was the class trip to the Barceló Market to get a feel for what goes into making authentic Spanish food. I would say the Spanish markets are a bit of an intermediate between a supermarket and a farmer’s market. Each stall, or puesto, specializes in a certain type of product; the “frutería” is where you stock up on fruit, the “pescadería” fills you up on fish, and the “casquería” is for all the innards left over from the slaughter of cows and pigs. I would say the most disturbing thing we saw was the block of congealed pig blood being sold, which apparently isn’t an entirely uncommon product for Spanish señoras to whip up for lunch. I wasn’t that adventurous in my purchases, though, and stuck with buying a few oranges, although I have to say that they don’t quite live up to those famous Florida oranges I’m used to!

(Sketchy) Entrance to the Barceló Market

The big event of the week was our overnight excursion to the beachside Nashville-sized city of Valencia on the east coast of Spain and the town of Cuenca about halfway along the drive between Madrid and Valencia. Cuenca was our first stop and although we had plans to see the Cathedral, the hanging houses and some museums, it turned out that the whole city was pretty much shut down for the Fiesta de San Mateo, which ended up being one of the best times I’ve had so far in Spain. A main component of this city-wide festival was a bull run, which, although much more low key than its counterpart in Pamplona, was a blast. While at first we stayed on the sidelines behind the safety of wooden barriers, we soon decided to brave the bull’s horns and get out where the real excitement was going down. At one point, we got within fewer than ten feet of the bull, our hearts pumping furiously and our legs running as fast as possible. However, the scariest moment definitely had to be when Amber got pushed to the slippery, wet ground in the crowd just as the bull was charging up the alley behind her. Luckily, she got pulled up and the Red Cross station cleaned her up and bandaged up her scraped knee.

An angry bull

Amber, bandaged up

After just a few hours in Cuenca, we hit the road again for Valencia and the Mediterranean Sea. Unfortunately, of the three weeks we’ve been here, this was the only weekend it rained, which put a big damper on the trip where sunshine was the most critical! Nevertheless, we made some adjustments in plans, ate some delicious crepes (not of the pancake variety) at the Creperie Bretonne, which housed an authentic London bus. The next day, we also tried some paella in its birthplace along Playa Levante. With whole crawfish adorning each portion and calamari mixed in with the rice, it was truly a gastronomic delight. After our lunch, we decided the dark clouds weren’t going to stop us from going to the beach and we took some time to dip our feet in the Mediterranean.

A dip in the Mediterranean

Afterwards, we got to experience La Lonja in all of its somber, gloomy glory as well as the immense and ornate Cathedral of Valencia. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for the super-modern City of the Arts and Sciences (awesome pictures!), but there’s always next time.

And for my favorite picture this week:

The new and improved windmills of La Mancha

The Three W's

Watching, walking, and waiting. That pretty accurately sums up my week.

Well, watching isn’t exactly what I meant, but “Going to museums” doesn’t start with a “w,” so I had to compromise. As part of the intensive Spanish class we get to go to various historically/culturally significant locations in Madrid to improve our understanding of the richness of the story this city has to tell. We’ve already visited “Old Madrid” (encapsulating everything from Plaza Mayor to Palacio Real) and La Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida (website in Spanish, but with some cool pictures), and this week we hit up the Prado and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. Although the Prado is widely regarded as among the best museums in the world for its vast Royal collection of European - mostly Spanish - art, the Thyssen-Bornemisza was the more interesting of the two for me. Our art history “professor” guided us through the contemporary Thyssen chronologically, allowing us to see the evolution of art movements such as impressionism and cubism in a way that was truly captivating. By the end, though, I got a little lost with the modern pieces like Green and Maroon. Next week we’ll be going to see Picasso’s famous Guernica at the Reina Sofía, so there’s still a lot to look forward to!

The Thyssen

Walking. Yesterday, nine of us went on a day trip to Segovia and La Granja, which are just a little more than an hour’s drive northwest of Madrid. Segovia is famous for its aqueduct bridge, which stretches almost 3000 feet and is almost 100 feet high – all without any mortar! It was definitely an imposing and impressive view, a testament to the engineering skill of the Romans millennia ago.

The Roman Aqueducts of Segovia

Another monumental sight in Segovia was the cathedral (of course), on which work began in 1525 but did not finish until 1768. Pictures do the most justice to this ethereal building.

Inside the cathedral

Maybe the most exciting part of the day, though, was lunch, where we got a glimpse of authentic Spanish food. Since my señora already packed me a bag lunch, I just got some little samplers, but they were big in flavor. Seeing as all the foods were rather exotic, all the words for the food were pretty much incomprehensible to all of us, so we just randomly picked things from the menu in our spirit of adventure. The first thing I chose was a salad with gulas, which are basically a synthetic version of angulas (baby eels) made from Alaskan Pollack; ham shavings; and the weirdest balsamic vinaigrette I’ve ever tasted. For my dessert, I had some bizcocho (sponge cake), onto which they poured some sort of flaming alcohol. I figured this would sort of be like bananas foster and all the alcohol would go up in flames before reaching my mouth, but this sponge cake was, to say the least, a strong dessert! Although it was fun trying out these new flavors, I’m glad my señora tones it down a little for us on an everyday basis!

My flavorful salad

Anna, wondering whether blood pudding and eggs was such a good idea

Waiting. As you know from my first post, I’m a premed. And one of the many rites of passage that a premed has to undergo is the MCAT. Since I didn’t want to worry about this god awful test while abroad (who wants to think about Organic Chemistry and Physics when you could be thinking about discotheques?!), I spent all three months of summer preparing for the test to finally take it on August 14^th. Since then, I’ve been not-so-patiently waiting for my score, which was due out at 5 pm on Wednesday. Of course, being partially neurotic when it comes to such things, I plopped myself down in front of the computer starting around 1 pm and just started checking my score about every ten minutes. At 4:59 pm (no joke), the MCAT gods decided that they were going to delay the scores until Friday. Angry but without any alternative, I followed the same pattern of activity that day, too, only to be told once again (although a little more mercifully at around 3 pm) that the scores would be delayed until “early next week.” Then, in the only turn for the better in this story of waiting, they decided they would come in on Saturday to work to give us our grades since we had already waiting a month. They finally came out yesterday, which was actually this morning for me, as I set my alarm for 4 am to wake up and check… (yea, that’s how crazy I am). Luckily, I did really, really well and all my anger about waiting disappeared. Celebrations today, talking with Dr. Baum (best premed advisor EVER) tomorrow!

And for my favorite picture of the week:

Gardens at La Granja, outside Segovia

Rockin' The Urbs

Where to start? Although I haven’t even been here for a week yet, it already seems like a second home. After shopping at the Rastro, becoming an expert on the Madrid metro, and eating everything from gazpacho to churros with chocolate, I feel like I’ve been wrapped up in the Spanish culture.

Since I last posted, our three-week-long intensive Spanish class has started, covering grammar and conversation. Both professors, Alicia and Rosana, are from Madrid (meaning they have that characteristic Castillian lisp that I’m trying hard to pick up) and are very friendly women eager to help us freshen up on our Spanish skills. Rosana is also a poet and some of her work (and some pictures of her) are on her website, which you should definitely check out. Luckily, the homework so far has been light, allowing us to take advantage of the offerings Madrid holds.

One such activity is the Rastro, a huge street market where everything from incense to t-shirts to art is sold, and cheaply! I was on the lookout for some euro sunglasses but couldn’t find any that were just right.

Rastro crowds

To add a little excitement to the trip to the Rastro, on the way back on the metro, which was crowded beyond imagination, a little old Spanish lady got pickpocketed and started screaming like nobody’s business. What makes this scary is that Carlos Jauregui told us that, based on previous years, 40% of us would suffer the same fate!

Crowd on the escalators for the metro

We also took advantage of our free time in the true Madrileño style by being “trasnochadores” – the Spanish equivalent of a night owl – by going to Kapital, a seven-floor club for dancing your heart out until six in the morning. Although it was a great time, I don’t think I could handle all-nighters every weekend, seeing as the next day I took about three hour-long naps and had some sore legs from five hours’ worth of dancing.

Hopefully the week to come will bring as much fun as this past week has.

Until next time, I’m going to do my best (and you should do yours) to NOT follow these instructions posted at a restaurant:

Prohibido Cantar / No Singing

Welcome to Toledo

We did it the tourist way. Well, at least we weren’t alone in that aspect on our trip to Toledo, an almost-fortress city just about a one hour drive south of Madrid. We had a great tour guide to show us along the narrow streets of Toledo (staying out of the way of the cars as best as we could!) and help us understand the history of this ancient city.

The group getting guided

Dodging cars

The highlight of the trip was definitely the Gothic cathedral, on which construction was begun in the 13^th century and didn’t finish until the 15^th century. The anticipation of seeing the cathedral built as we caught glimpses of the tower from across the city, slowly weaving our way through the streets in its direction. The level of workmanship and the sheer feat of erecting such a building in medieval times simply astounds me.

The Cathedral's tower from the city

After crisscrossing the city, we were left with about a two and a half hour block of free time, which we used to scour the shops, admiring the intricately detailed gold “Damascus” plates, trying to start a sword fight using the many swords being sold at every corner (unluckily, the swords were tied to their racks), and browsing the selection of fans that are essential to completing the accessories of any truly Spanish woman. We also took some time sitting at an outdoor café in the Plaza del Conde, where the people-watching was at its best.

Holly and Caroline at the cafe

By the end of the day, we were all completely exhausted and almost everyone dozed off for a few minutes on the bus ride home (Lindsay has the pictures of mouths hanging open in sleep to prove it). To sum it all up, I think we all left with the same attitude as this statue:

Getting Acquainted

The street performers are everywhere. Coming from a small town, I’m used to someone putting on an impromptu performance during a fair or parade, but I am not joking when I say that here in Madrid they are at every corner, filling the air with music, offering photos with Winnie the Pooh in an undersized “I Love Hunny” t-shirt, or showcasing their mad hackey sack skills.

Guitar player at Retiro

This outgoing, welcoming attitude was not just confined to those people looking for you to drop a few coins their way in gratitude for their performance, but permeates the city as a central component of the culture. Walking into the house of my host, Olga, she welcomed me with “dos besos” – a kiss on either cheek – and an exclamation that this is not just her home, but mine as well for the next three and a half months. This “what’s mine is yours” attitude was seen time and time again as we were introduced to our tutors and explored the city, meeting their friends and being treated like longtime amigos.

During these meanderings, the beauty of Madrid radiated as we explored Retiro Park, a stunning oasis in the heart of the city; a sculpture garden with whimsical modernistic pieces; and the streets of the city, shaded by rows of trees – pictures are below! (Speaking of pictures, now that I’m here I realize all of the amazing sights there are, so this blog will probably end up being half pictures; hope you don’t mind!)

Speaking of new experiences, my first encounter with the Madrid bus and metro system was today. I’ve read everywhere that it is an amazing and extensive system, which I won’t deny, but it takes forever to get anywhere in this city! Of course, I really learned the hard way today when we were supposed to be at our orientation meeting at 10 am and we left our house at 9:20 only to arrive there at 10:20 (we’re talking about going not even halfway across the city.) Maybe any of you from big cities can let me know, but I never dreamed that it would be such an expedition to get across town! While I’m on the topic of transportation, the director of VIS, Carlos Jauregui, told us that we would probably lose five to ten percent of our body weight, which is bad news Monday for me since I’ve been battling to gain weight for the crew team. Luckily, though, when I told my señora this, she assured me that her good cooking would ensure that I wouldn’t lose a pound!

We’re all headed out for a day-trip excursion to Toledo tomorrow, so I’ll be sure to post in the next few days with lots of pictures and hopefully some stories of cool adventures!