it's still raining

pretty much having papa' here has been fabuloso and i don't want him to leave! i can't believe i leave for MOROCCO tomorrow night...so wild. monday after i blogged it ended up clearing up for a bit (miraculously), so we were able to go to el retiro and walk around! it was beaautiful. it felt very much like fall, and we got to spend some time watching the ducks and fish and birds, and the way cute kids feeding them with breadcrumbs. we ended up walking back in ther rain which was enjoyable nonetheless, and headed out to cenar at el botin with jenny & katy, which was a lot of fun.

papa' and jenny talked acid reflux the whole time because jenny is just faaascinated. we talked and sat for such a good while, it was really nice. that's been my favorite part of this trip--obviously there have been great meals, but even better has been the time at the table...the waiters don't bring la cuenta until you ask, and even then it takes a good 45 minutes til the bill actually gets to you. so different from the rushed service we get in the states--it's like they actually want you to spend some time there.

tuesday after school i met papa' at the hotel, and we got a bite at pans & company, which i thought was just delicious, then headed out on el autobus for el escorial--the beautiful monastery/palace/basilica that sits on a hill 45 minutes outside of madrid. it was raining and raining, which sort of put a damper on things, but it was a fun trip nonetheless. we ended up paying for the guided tour instead of the audioguide, but it was only a group of 4 so it was pretty personal and interesting. the room with the marble caskets blew my mind--i couldn't believe there were real kings and queens in there... and the basilica was just beautiful. we sat in there for a good while and just took in the walls and images and the thoughts they provoked. it was really beautiful. it was pouring as we left, and we got back to madrid and got ready for dinner.

after looking for some free internet for a while, we met up with jonathan, nicole & jen for dinner (which was eventful, as well--some confusion with metro stops!) and ended up at a mexican restaurant near plaza espana. it was pretty good, and a lot of fun to be in that kind of setting with friends...talked about home a lot, things we were used to, how much we love mexican food, etc. another long meal and really great conversation and company. after such an unsuccessful night of finding a free internet cafe we got back to the hotel and i decided to call the front desk and ask about their internet (the computer just wouldn't connect to the wireless) and they said sure! come down for a cable. awesome... can't believe we didn't ask the first day.

wednesday (today) papa' came to school with me! sooo great. it was fun having him see what it was all like, and get a better picture of what i'm really learning over here! he LOVED my international relations class (as do i) & enjoyed teatro espanol as well. i gave him a little tour and he even had a cafe con leche and pastry in our cafeteria. it was pooouring while we were at school, but the walk back to the metro was really beautiful with all the green trees in the park near the school & the clean air.

lunch with marina, ana & jenny today since papa' hadn't met marina (my host mom) yet because she was out of town this weekend and they have such a crazy work schedule. lunch was really enjoyable, and i'm glad papa' had a chance to meet them. we walked around for a while after that and then went to ISA for a bit for a meeting. back to the hotel at 7 and took a 2 hour nap...we were just sooo tired. papa' slept until 10, when i woke him up to see if we were going to get dinner! we headed out like true madrilenos at 11pm for a bite to eat and got a small plate of paella and manchego queso with pan. delicious. we're back at the hotel now at 115 and i should get ready for bed. tomorrow's my last day with papa' and i'm off to morocco. i don't really want him to go home. i suppose less than 2 months left til i'm hooome. but obviously i'm having a great time, and i've loved re-discovering madrid with papa' here. wish you were here, too.
<3

speaking of papá

i´m having a great time with papá...it´s still soo exciting that he´s here! saturday was sort of recooperation day for him, as he was pretty tired from traveling, so we didn´t make it to el escorial as planned, but we did see an awesome play saturday night called "el caratero de neruda" about the friendship between pablo neruda & his postman...with some political stuff thrown in there as well. it was a realllly enjoyable play, especially because i could actually understand all that was going on! after that, papá and i had dinner at my host family´s house, which was so delightful. lots of pizza, lots of laughing, (lots of español of course) & lots of this hilarious game called "tienes un clip?" that ana taught us. it was good times, we stayed until 130 am, then woke up the next morning to go to "el rastro", madrid´s biggest flea market.

two & a half hours later all we´d bought was an umbrella. but it was fun nonetheless & i´m sure i´ll go back and leave with something other than an umbrella. after that we headed to my house to have lunch with my host family--homemade pasta, which was AMAZING, to be followed by a game of canasta! soo much fun. 5 people & 3 decks, it was great. papá actually brought in the win, and i came in 2nd. holler, montoys! after that we napped for an hour then headed off to to "loco por el fútbol"--a bar-club-restaurant type place whose name says it all. jonathan met us there & the three of us got to watch the end of formula 1, which was actually really fun to see, and the barcelona-real madrid game. real madrid scored within the first 3 minutes of the game and i couldn´t believe it. it was awesome...the place erupted. the place was really fun--plasma screens all along the walls of the 2-story place, and big screens above those. we had a good time. we left surprised that real-madrid held down the win--2-0! awesome. we were pretty disappointed that the streets weren´t filled with fans, though--the rain does that, i guess.

today i had class, then met papá back at the hotel and we got café con leche and some sopa & enjoyed some quality time to just sit and talk... it was really nice. the rain is sort of draining us. haha, no pun intended. but. it puts a damper on things because i wanted to do some more fun stuff outside, like row boats in the park. i suppose we´ll make do. tonight we´re off to the oldest restaurant in the world--el botín--founded in 1725! (goya worked as a plate cleaner there in 1765) with katy & jenny...i´m excited.

miss you all...abrazos y besos

speaking of spain...the past two weeks in a nutshell

I’ve got to sit down and write because tomorrow my DAD arrives!!! Which means that there will be a whole new whirlwind of activity and I will just get further and further behind in telling you about the last couple of weeks. Geez I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since I went to paris. It seems like so much longer with all that’s happened in that time. I feel extremely fortunate to be experiencing and seeing all that I am. It seems like everyday I feel more and more comfortable here, yet I still can’t believe I’m here…and at the same time, I am growing more homesick. I am so excited to see my dad, but hope that it doesn’t make me even more homesick when he leaves!

So in the past 2 weeks I have started 4 new classes, been to Toledo and back, and Barcelona & back, met lots of new people, . I will attempt to unravel each…

Classes are amazing. I am really happy to be at nebrija (my university)…it is a new private school and the teachers are so great and invested, and we have actual interaction with them. I wasn’t so certain about my class load the first week, so I went and talked to the person in charge and he was super helpful and helped me switch out of one of my classes and find a more suitable one for me, which now happens to be my favorite class! teatro espanol—we are reading & watching a few important plays in the class, and discussing the importance of theatre within the context of spain’s history. The first few classes, we discussed the difference between poems and plays and had to transform a poem into a play and make a ficha for it (basically an ad) & write a page of dialogue out. we weren’t required to act it out, but obviously we did and my teacher LOVED it. it was pretty much professional quality. We transformed a dramatic lorca poem into comedy. Wish you were there.

I’m also taking gramatica (grammar) and I LOVE my teacher—she explains everything so well. and then there’s espana diversa, which hasn’t been my favorite class in the world, but it is picking up. it is essentially a history class about Spain, focusing on its autonomous communities & how they came to be. Lastly I have international relations in English, which I really really really am enjoying.

So 2 wkends ago our ISA group went to Toledo, which was lovely. It was a beautiful little town, with lots of hills, some of the TINIEST streets (width-wise) I’ve ever seen, built in stone, and famous for el Greco, its production of swords (it actually is home of the swords used in lord of the rings and troy) and mazapan (marzipan), which is absolutely delicious. We even had a fun surprise of running into the mayor on our walking tour, and he was kind enough to stop and take a photo with us. Swell. El Greco’s highly acclaimed piece—The Burial of the Count of Orgaz was absolutely incredible to see up close…I was in awe.

It was also really fun to visit Toledo because in our Espana Diversa class we had just been discussing Isabelle & Ferdinand, which had great influence in Toledo, so it was great to have even more contextual basis for the experience.

Barcelona was absolutely incredible this last weekend…I had a great time. It was also an ISA trip, and we left Friday morning and got back Sunday evening. It was just so nice to be by the water. And Gaudi’s work was so unique…I loved Park Guell, which is essentially a garden with all of Gaudi’s incredible architecture. It was so interesting to learn about his interest in creating art from nature, and seeing how that manifested in his work. I loved Barcelona and you should absolutely check out the photos if you haven’t yet. It was also a great weekend to get to know the other ISA kids, since all the sessions of kids have arrived. I would really like to return to Barcelona and spend more time at park guell & at the beach—saw the beach, but didn’t get to spend much time there. Oh and I almost forgot…la sagrada familia. The 2^nd most visited site in Spain, and Gaudi’s unfinished masterpiece. It’s a cathedral and has been under construction since 1890. it was left unfinished when Gaudi died, and is still not done! They predict it’ll be finished in 20 years. Apparently Gaudi requested that all work be done on it with funds raised by people visiting/coming to worship in the cathedral…that plus the complication of being ultra careful in what they add to Gaudi’s masterpiece has let the construction to endure so much time.

I have been missing my family lots and lots. It is extremely hard not to be home right now while my grandpa is sick. I just want to be there with him. I am so lucky I got to spend some time with him before I left. I am really happy my dad has gotten to spend more time with him the last few weeks, and that juan carlos is there with him now while my dad can’t be.

It’s Saturday morning now & I just got back from picking my dad up at the airport and spending some time with him. he needed a nap, so I ran to my house to pick up some things and post this blog…

Whooaa I heard a loooud procession of people and a parade and thought it was a couple blocks away, in Sol (the most central part of Madrid) but I just looked out the window and the parade is outside my house, stretching all along my street—it’s a parade for socialism in cuba and against imperialism.

The signs read: Abajo el imperialismo con la revolucion; libertad para los 5 cubanos presos en los EEUU por luchar contra el terrorismo; catalunya para cuba; contra imperialismo construyamos socialismo.

I didn’t expect to encounter something so eventful in the two-block walk from my house to my dad’s hotel so I don’t have my camera with me—what a bummer!

I’m off to papa’s hotel, then we’re off to el Escorial—this beautiful monastery in the mountains. I’m exciiited. Will write more along the week of my adventures with papa! Miss you and love you.

other fun random stuff from the past 2 wks:

-went over to my friend, selena's house the other day to watch the last few episodes of this season's "the office" with our other friend emily. HILARIOUS...she has a "season pass" on itunes so the new episodes automatically download as they come in, isn't that brilliant?

-had a personal training session at the gym and LOVED it...love the cool stuff she taught me.

-it's been raining the last couple of days! it's nice, spain's had a drought & is hard-pressed for water... and i have been walking around with a broken umbrella sort of opened above me. haha...

speaking of paris... (the longest post you have ever seen)

my trip to paris was unbelievable. paris really is more than I could’ve ever imagined it to be. It was beautiful and interesting and exciting and peaceful and delicious all at once. It was really weird coming back to spain—it was like I was going back to “normal” after traveling, but really I was going back to MADRID, which is still new and exciting. i was even super excited to go back to speaking spanish--bonjour. merci. au revoir. s'il vous plaît... was about all i knew around those parts...It also made me really thankful to have a great host family that I feel really comfortable and “at home” with. (obviously there is nothing like being at home home…but this was a great consolation prize.) it was neat to come back and sort of look at madrid in a new way—seeing paris helped me to notice things that are particular about Madrid…the architecture, the feel, the food. it was great to have more exposure to Europe so that I could learn more about the intricacies of each country.

Katy and I got into orly airport at around 11am Thursday morning SO excited to be in france. Katy has a friend aurelie who she met online doing an exchange type correspondence program during high school & they have kept in contact for four years, but have never met in person! Aurelie offered to pick us up from the airport and take us wherever we needed to go—what a treat. She and her brother drove us an hour into the city & we looked out the window in awe at the bright city and beautiful buildings. Madrid is so colorful and has so much red—paris has pretty much all white buildings. We drove through the main streets—down the champs elysees, passed the arc de triumph…it was a great little tour/preview for the next four days. We were shocked that they came to the airport to pick us up, drove us all the way across town, AND had bought us metro passes for our first ride. So so kind.

They left us at spencer’s, which was in the 14 area (northwest) just a little ways beyond the arc de triumph. We had 45 minutes to kill before spencer got home from school, so we explored his beautiful neighborhood, where we saw the first of many “la boulangerie’s” & stumbled into a gorgeous church (which is in the photos). We met up with Spence & Tia (his awesome gf) after that and went to a market and bought a couple baguettes, smoked turkey, hummus, apple juice, brie and sat out in the park near his house. it was one of my favorite times all four days—SUCH delicious food, a beautiful day, an awesome park. It was so nice to just chill outside and soak it in. mmm. The food is unbeatable. After lunch, Tia & Spence had to head back to school so katy & I walked from his house down to the arc de triumph & all the way down the champs elysees to the monument park near the louvre. Katy and I were thankful for having walking legs from Madrid, it was so much more enjoyable to be out and about all day instead of stuck in the metro…The whole walk was just amazing…we walked for a good 4 hours that afternoon. The arc de triumph was beautiful, it was so much fun to see up close…soo many tourists everywhere. We walked home and made it ¾ of the way there by memory, then got lost. The good thing was we got to see ALL of spencer’s neighborhood in case we hadn’t already… we finally made it to spencer’s, where we hung out with his friends there for awhile, then trekked out into the paris night. we walked by the Moulin Rouge & were SO disappointed to not have our camera. We just walked around that night, got falafels at a yummy restaurant & watched some golf in a bar for awhile—what is it with bars showing golf?

The next day (Friday) Spence, Tia, Katy & I made it to Versailles…which was super incredible. The place is just ginormous. It’s like what were you think king louis XIV? But really all the rooms were crazy and we couldn’t believe how ornate they were. It was really a treat to see after having seen spain’s palacio real just earlier that week. Inside was swell but my favorite part of Versailles (& one of my favorite parts of the whole trip) was walking around out back in the gardens and near the ponds & fountains out back. We were in search of marie antoinette’s quarters and never really found them, though we walked for a good while and enjoyed the green pastures & beautiful trees. We even saw sheep & horses! It was just so beautiful out there—soo so green and rich. We started to head back after a few hours as it began to rain…but on the way back the rain stopped and the sun came out and it was one of the most beautiful sites—check out the photos for sure.

From Versailles, Katy & I were to meet Aurelie at her house as she was so excited to have us over for dinner with all her friends. We ate potluck style with pizza and pasta salad and salad & her friends were SO SO nice & super fun. From there, those girls were going out to a club in the city so we trekked with them on the metro to the center of the city (aurelie lives in the outskirts of paris—in the southeast corner, which is the absolute opposite end of spencer, who lives in the northwest corner). Katy & I made it back safely to spencer’s house after that & we woke up early the next morning for a long & full Saturday…

Saturday we woke up & walked back down the champs elysees to eat at the delightful café, PAUL, which looked delicious & was an obvious stop. J it was really good & lots of fun to take back the little sugars wrapped in paper that says PAUL on it. hehe. We walked all the way down to the champs elysees back to the louvre, which was SUCH a great time. it was like the biggest place ever with the most amazing art pieces ever—Grecian pieces, German, Dutch, French, Egyptian. Everything you could think of—& of course the classics: la venus de milo, the mona lisa (I snuck a couple photos, even though I definitely wasn’t supposed to…), winged bull…everything was beautiful & just so diverse. It was so neat to see so much amazing art in one place that was from so many different places. It was like 4 floors of wing after wing after wing of art. We spent the bulk of the morning there, then our bellies led us to get a couple of crepes to share and eat along the seine. It is so lovely eating along the river—it was gorgeous. The notre dame is just on the other side of the river, so we went there after lunch, which was a lot of fun as well. it was humongous and beautiful. The stained glass was gorgeous. after spending some time inside, we walked along the seine and visited the shops along that area—saw the outside art and such. We wrote some postcards along the river and watched this crazy rollerblading show that some kids were putting on. Some of the craziest tricks I’ve seen…very impressive. As it started to get darker (& started to rain) we hopped on one of the boats to take the boat tour, which was really fun to take, especially since it beat getting wet/being inside somewhere. We saw the Eiffel tower & dusk had just rolled in, so it lit up just as we parked the boat at that stop. Later that evening aurelie & her brother and his friend romain picked us up at the notre dame for dinner, which we ate in the city. After that we headed to a club for some dancing & it was the funnest club I have ever been to. It was like they played actual music that made me want to get up and dance…literally. It was very casual and informal, and there were some legit dancers in there. It was called “barrio latino” & I really wanted to get my bros+paul a shirt there but it was a little over my budget. [foto] we had a really good time, then they drove us to aurelie’s aunt’s house where katy & I slept for the night.

Sunday morning aurelie’s aunt was there to make us breakfast (we had stayed there alone) & I asked her how her trip was (thinking she had been away for the weekend) but she had just gone to sleep at aurelie’s house so we could have a place to sleep! I couldn’t believe it. she was incredibly hospitable and so so nice (just like aurelie). After breakfast, katy & I headed off to the Basilique du Sacre Coeur, and totally took the wrong metro stop…we thought it looked like such the perfect stop from the map, but saw metro stop after metro stop as we got closer and closer the sacre coeur. I was really thankful for the “mistake” b/c we were able to see a totally different side of paris—the run-down, poverty stricken side. It offered a more complete & realistic view of paris. It is really interesting how in paris all of the affluence is in the heart of the city, and the minorities live on the outskirts (so often it is the other way around). So we got to walk through some different and interesting neighborhoods Sunday morning, and the streets were lined with the most ethnic foods I had seen the whole trip. We didn’t see anything that resembled anything French until we got to the bottom of the hill near Montmartre. We climbed the long set of stairs to the highest point in paris…WHAT a site!!! Sacre Coeur/Montmartre was easily my favorite part of the trip. The basilica was incredible and it was so pleasant to sit there on Sunday morning and be absorbed by the peaceful ambience. We spent a good while inside, then walked to the fun artist area behind the cathedral. Katy made the mistake of buying a beret that morning, and consequently got bombarded by artists who just HAD to draw her with her beret on! Some were actually very upset when she refused…we ate a delicious bruschetta tomato “pizza” on a sidewalk on the streets of Montmartre and were able to escape the of-&-on rain that kept rolling in. After that we walked down the front side of Montmartre (we had come in through the back) & walked down that neighborhood to see the coolest shops…I couldn’t get enough of that neighborhood. Every shop was so unique! As per Katy’s request, we walked the path from Montmartre to the café in which the movie Amelie was set…so cute. Katy was ecstatic. We walked a little further and were so surprised to stumble onto the footsteps of the Moulin rouge! We couldn’t believe it was so close! We were pretty happy that we had a second chance at photos, since we had forgotten the camera the first time by. After that we headed to the pompidou (modern art museum) to meet Lauren, a friend from Stanford. It was great to see another familiar face, and to peruse the crazy museum that had exhibits like a row of seats covered with carpets for the public to sit in—that was “art.” Or a white room with a red car that was crashed. There was also some Warhol & Matisse, which was cool to see as well. it was a fun time & it was free, as it was the first Sunday of the month! (can’t believe it’s already October…) Lauren gave us some good pointers on places to stay for the night (as we miscommunicated with aurelie—she thought we were staying at her aunt’s friday & sat & we thought sat & sun)…so we headed over to the notre dame area, as just south of that area is sort of “university central” & she thought we’d be able to get some good deals. We got pretty nervous when the first places we went into were 130 Euro a night…but luckily we found a hotel pretty soon after for less than half of that. Not a bad deal to split. Plus it had free laundry & breakfast. Mmm. We decided that we would have a menu dinner (a dinner that comes with an appetizer & dessert) as Lauren also filled us in that we could find specials for about 10 euro! Pretty rad for an appetizer, entrée & dessert. We found a spot which wasn’t that awesome but still fun, then headed off to climb the Eiffel tower at night! I really didn’t anticipate it to be as “breathtaking” (to be melodramatic) as it actually was. It really was incredible. The air was cool & the view was so so clear. I even met a couple who said they were from California, & when I said I was from the central valley they guessed Fresno. It was a perfect way to end the trip.

The next & last morning (Monday) we enjoyed our free & surprisingly delicious breakfast at the hotel, of super fresh baguettes + jam/cheese/nutella (not all at once) & a huge cup of a mocha-latte. We walked around near spencer’s school & tried to figure out how to make it to the airport…his program’s secretary lady was awesome enough to tell us that not far from there we could catch a bus that went straight to the airport for 6euro. Not bad. we made it back to madrid in an hour and forty-five minutes. crazy.
The trip was amazing & I was sooo glad to have taken it.

Things that struck me about paris:

-It was a beautiful place to experience fall with the changing trees and the brisk air

-Parisian drivers are horrific—it was just as scary to cross the street as it was to ride in the backseat of a car!

-It was super expensive—even the metro was twice as much as madrid’s, & it was best to stick to the basics: baguette, brie, walking (although with walking you have to allot a good amount of time to get anywhere) & do some research beforehand on when museums are free/discounted!

-I am capable of eating more bread than I ever though I could…and I probably ate as much as I ordinarily eat in a yr…but it was the best bread I’d ever had.

-the metro is super complex—15 times more complex than that of Madrid.

-Parisians are SO helpful. That day we were lost on the way to spencer’s, everyone we asked tried to help us. And at one point, the person we asked didn’t know so they asked someone else walking by, who also didn’t know, so they asked somebody else walking by…and the three of them all tried to help us together. Haha.

-The view from everything we climbed was incredible.

It was all in all delightful and enjoyable :)

4th wk happenings

last night i watched the real madrid game on tv with my host family girls (i still don't know how to refer to them...) my hermanas + senora? there is just something different about watching a game & actually having national pride for a team (i guess in soccer it's only ever been the women's national team)... just being in madrid, even watching the game on tv, makes it feel different.

this weekend felt really long & full. saturday i went to a cafe with katy & enjoyed the quiet time on the rainy day. it was really enjoyable. that night, we went out for "la noche en blanco"--a huge city-wide all night party, started at 9pm & ended at 7am. all the museums and sites were open for the entire night. katy and i went to teatro espanol to watch a free show, which was a site to see. the show started at midnight and the streets were full and well-lit. even families with young kids were out. the show was definitely a site to see...very different, sort of surrealist-esque. i think i understood it. what i got of it was that there was a president who was absent for the first half of the show & everyone was looking for him...when he came, he spoke of war, and that those who weren't "with him" were "against him"... i obviously immediately thought of our political state. but i tried to clarify the message with the older woman sitting next to me and she said it wasn't a simple theme, she didn't even really get it--hmmm... WOOOHOOO i made a photo on the page. which is awesome b/c a picture says a thousand words...

anyhow, sunday our senor taught me how to make pizza ... mmm it was delicious. can't wait to make it at home.

monday & tuesday were spent on the whole focused on school, as tuesday & wednesday were my final exams this first month of classes! but tuesday afternoon our ISA group went to palacio real--the gorgeous palace here in madrid, not too far from my home. it was humongous & exquisite. Though King Juan Carlos (holler atcha, brother) don't actually reside in the palace, they still hold state occasions there. we visited various salons of the king & queen, all very different though equally intricate, as well as the Royal Armory museum on one of the wings. it was wildly extravagant, but a lot of fun to watch (holler atcha, paul).

today i had my last day of classes (2 finals)! hooray to be done. and i get a mini break until tuesday when classes start anew, with a full school of students enrolled in semester long schooling at the universidad--including spaniards! should be a big change. i am excited to start my new classes, but also very thrilled to have this break for our trip to paris! tonight ISA has scheduled a "reunion" with spanish students our age, so we learn about the real life, if you know what i mean.

i will take loads of fotos in paris, obviously. should be a blast.

love you all & miss you!

madrid days 21 & 22

what an awesome week. i can't believe i'm coming into my 4th wk in espana...this first month flew! i can't believe our month of intensive-spanish classes will be over by next wednesday...yikes. this also means that we have 5 days off until school starts anew on oct 3...which means that katy & i bought tickets to PARIS! soo exciting, i still can't believe it. we will be leaving thursday morning on the 2 hour flight (awesome) and returning monday sometime. so we'll have a good 4 days in there. + i will get to see spence!

yesterday our ISA crew + the new students from the next session went to el museo prado to see velasquez, el greco y goya. it was unbelievable. we had a really great guide--so good i could understand everything she said speaking in espanol. increible. i am excited to go back with papa' when he comes to visit & see another wing of the amazingly huge prado museum!

friday night we had a special guest--cata's boyfriend who is leaving to study for a few months in avila. that was reason enough for carlos to cook. homemade burgers. they were unbelievable. and humongous. they couldn't believe i had never had an egg on a burger before...they thought it was an american thing.

after that, i went with jonathan & a bunch of ISA kids from our group + juliana, paul taylor & jonathan's friend from santa barbara (small world) to my first discotec. it was such a site--you must check out the photos.. it was like 5 stories high... pretty rad. we had lots of fun.

miss you guys

madrid day 20

the other day, we had to meet our directors at starbucks before we headed off on some excursion, and while i was waiting i read their chalkboard of new drinks and it said "tomate frappucino" and i was like yuck. tomato frappucino. but then i noticed the accent over the "e" and realized it was an order--like drink your frappucino. haha. and also i still love seeing ronaldhino on commercials here, eating pudding and what not.

i've been busy this week of school with midterms--i can't believe i've been here long enough to have midterms, but i really really can't believe that next week is finals, and we're done with our month of intensive-spanish on wednesday. and BIG NEWS: katy and i are probably going to spend our 5 days off traveling to PARIS! so exciting. it will be really rad, and i will get to spend some time with spencer & tia & she has friends there as well.

so today we got a list of classes we are allowed to take based on the level of spanish we just took and will pass into...we have to choose by friday, but i am pretty excited. right now i'm looking at 3 classes in spanish--arte y civilizacion, diverse spain (modern culture, history, economics, society, etc.), a class on grammar & international relations in english. it should be fuun!

the new students in our program are here and it's been soo different, and i imagine it will continue to feel different as we start to go on excursions with them, and as even more students come for the next couple of sessions.

love you & miss you allll

madrid sept 16

what an eventful last couple of days! yesterday (friday) after school, jenny & i took siestas pretty much until our ISA meeting that evening and walked around a bit. last night we went to a get together at our friend from school enrique's house for kind of a house-warming party b/c he and his friends just moved in to a new apartment. katie, jenny, deeps & i walked there and it wasn't very far. it was a reallly nice apartment & there were a bunch of friends from school there. it was a really great get-together. very laid back and lots of good conversation. it was so fun to speak in spanish all night with other kids my age (a group of them were from brazil, so they don't exactly speak english). anyway, we talked about futbol and americans & school & laughed lots. we went home pretty early to rest for our great big day of our excursion to SALAMANCA today!

hooray...salamanca was BEAUTIFUL. i loved it. i secretly think i might like it more than madrid, but who really knows since i was there for all of 6 hours. it was just very very different. it had much less of a big-city feel than madrid does, and it was more of the image of spain you have when you're imagining it--very rustic and spanish-feeling (i'm not sure what that "spanish-feeling" means, but it seems to evoke a very particular feeling and image)...it was really beautiful. obviously i took loads of photos and will send them out soon. it was so much fun, i really liked it. it was organized through our school, and enough kids to fill 1 charter bus went, i got lucky i signed up early enough... we learned lots and saw lots and walked lots and i loved it. i hope you enjoy the photos.

and then tonight, jonathan got here! (my friend from stanford) and i got to go over to his homestay and have dinner, which was really nice. it was so great to see a familiar face!

i miss everyone a lot. especially chico, he is in limon for a retreat for his business concentration that will start soon, and i haven't talked to him in a couple of days. hopefully he is having fun! love you all
<3

madrid day 14

today was one of my favorite days here so far. we went with isa, which right now is still jenny, katie & i + carlos & sylvia, to the templo de debod. it's an egyptian temple that was given as a gift to spain in 1968, but built in 1st century AD--making it the oldest monument that is currently in spain. spain helped contribute funds for it to be built, which is why they were awarded its remnants when it was going to be destroyed almost 40 yrs ago due to flooding from the construction of a dam. it was so much fun to be in the temple and see the engraved walls & altars.

afterward, we were going to go ride a "teleferico" which is like an enclosed ski-lift (like the rides at the santa cruz beach boardwalk) but it was closed! so they bought us ice cream as compensation. if you've never had european ice cream, it's reason enough to come. it's unbelievable. there are little stands everywhere selling it, and i feel like everywhere i turn people are eating ice cream. after the ice cream run we walked a 45 minute route home and enjoyed the gorgeous weather & beautiful sky. you've gotta check out the pictures on snapfish once i get my act together and send them... buenas

madrid day 13

after school today we went to el museo sorolla...don't worry, if you never get to go there in your life, i took enough pictures for you to feel like you are walking through the entire museum--it was BEAUTIFUL. the museum is actually this huge beautiful house with a courtyard and fountains, and it was the actual home of the artist sorolla. inside, all his works hang in the rooms of his home--his studio, his dining area, bedrooms. it was really interesting to see the amazing pieces and have a different feel, standing in the rooms in which he actually created them. the audioguides are priceless, and this time i actually listened in espanol! exciting, i know...

we walked home from the museum, which took an hour, but we were able to see a new side of madrid. it seems like the streets are teeming more and more everyday with people. the madrid we saw this afternoon looked the way i envisioned europe--tiny alleys, sidewalks with lots of people, and little shop after little shop.

tonight was kind of disappointing...i was super excited to go to a pub tonight to watch the real madrid with a bunch of friends, buut it didn't work out. it's nice b/c i get to catch up on some much needed sleep and take it easy, & i suppose i'll have tons of opportunities to go to the pub to watch the futbol match. i am liking my friends from school more and more.

ohh i am excited for salamanca on saturday. hooray.

miss you

madrid day 10

today we had a meeting for deportes after school! (sports) there are a lot of exciting possibilities--indoor soccer, tennis, volleyball, pilates. we'll see what i decide on when the schedules get finalized. i would really love to play soccer and pilates, and well, all of those... i met some brazilian girls who wanted to play soccer, too but it looks like they are going to antonio de nebrija's other campus that's super far beginning in october for a business concentration and i think sports don't start until oct because that's when everyone else starts school (everyone i'm in school with right now is doing the language-intensive month). so we'll see how it all unfolds. i am excited nonetheless.

after lunch and a siesta, jenny, katie & i went to see la joven del agua (lady in the water), which i had no idea about before going to see it. it was interesting...fun to see.

it was interesting that i posted about autumn yesterday because today was so much cooler...i wore pants for the first time and was even a bit cold. it definitely does feel different in the city with the weather changing.

i am getting more and more excited for more isa students to come! they get here this saturday, and it will be fun to get to know more people and go on adventures with them.

i am feeling a little bit homesick today...
<3

el otono? madrid day 19

i am wondering what autumn will feel like here, without the orange and yellow leaves lining the streets. tomorrow is the day it's supposed to cool off...i wonder if it will smell different, and if the streets will look the same as it gets colder...if people will still fill the streets when they're filled with puddles. it feels so different to be going to school here, but i wonder if it will feel more like school when students in espana start school--if the pace of life around here will change.

[today was not very adventurous...came home and read and ate and slept then went for a walk. did my tarea. went to the isa office. it was a relaxing day...]

madrid day 9

acabo de ver una pelicula tan intensa! i just finished watching the most intense movie--como agua para chocolate. it was so artistic. ayy el amor.
this morning we went to church, which was delightful. it was in english, but they slipped in and out of espanol. we will likely check out a different church next week, and go to el rastro afterward (the fabuloso flea market that they have in spain).
the highlight of the day was the hour run i went on in the middle of the afternoon. it was so great, and i was able to see the city in a different way... it felt so familiar.
afterward i came home and showered then jenny & i went off to see katy's house...the place she's staying is so different, as are the couple she's living with. it was interesting to see how much our experiences vary just based on the homestays. after a bit we came back for dinner with her and watched the movie. and here i am ready to start another week of escuela y aventuras.
:)

...oh and today for lunch we had tostadas de ceviche. pero no tenian tostada de tortilla, era de pan. pero siempre era muy bueno.

madrid day 8

que dia fabuloso. i ventured off on my own this afternoon on a walk to el museo thyssen to see the monet exhibit that will only be around until tomorrow. when i got there, i paid for an audioguide and started through the museum...after like 3 rooms i started to wonder why there weren't any monet pieces, but i figured i would get to them at some point...(it also occurred to me that there weren't very many people there, which was surprising for the day before closing). i got to the 4th room to find that it was the end and so astutely surmised that i had been in the wrong room. i walked out and the lady said the monet exhibit was around the corner, and i realized i had also bought the wrong audio guide...so i explained to the nice lady who gave me my money back, so i was able to have another audio guide for the monet exhibit...2 for the price of one, how lucky. i was soo tired by the time i finished that exhibit + i had a nice long walk home. i really did enjoy it but i was wiped out. what a hard life, i know...

on the way home i picked up tickets for a play jenny wanted to go to--la casa de bernarda alba (the house of bernarda alba), which she had been in during high school. the theatre was beautiful (there are pictures of course)...the play was great. it was so interesting to see it in spanish...i understood most of it, thank goodness jenny had seen it, but the hardest part was there was so much fast yelling, it was hard to distinguish the words & make out what they were saying. there was also a surprise at the end, which i could never ruin...think european theatre...let's just say the same scene wasn't in jenny's high school play. that area we were in outside of the theatre was such a happening plaza, we will definitely have to go back sometime. and we realized on the way home that it is only like 2 minutes away instead of like 10--we were going a long way.

anyhow we came home to some lovely dinner guests--friends of the family who are also argentinian, and also moved to spain 5 yrs ago (like my host family). they were awesome. and what was even more awesome was the homemade pizza our host dad made. unbelievable. undoubtedly the best pizza i've ever had. AND i finally took photos of our host family, so you can see these delightful people after i've been describing them for so long. such a great meal with friends.

madrid day 7

it's been a week. wild. feels like a little over 3 months and a couple of days. just kidding. but it does feel like we've been here for awhile...after all, by now i've gotten used to eating dinner at 10pm! even so, there's still sooo much to explore. jenny & i decided, starting next week, we're going to have excursions after school where we choose a random metro stop on the way home from school and find our way home. the more we walk around everyday the more we find that everywhere is really in walking distance. i have never enjoyed walking as much as i enjoy it here--the novelty of being here still hasn't worn off--and i walk around with wide eyes, as i try to be a sponge.

this afternoon after my entirely too long siesta (the spanish make fun of us americans for calling our 4 hour naps "siestas"--"eso no es siesta, es durmiendo!"--that's not a siesta, that's sleeping--they say!) jenny & i went to play pool with olivia & her boyfriend, hugo, and his best friend, carlos. we played pool and air hockey then walked home from plaza espana

so it seems that i am not able to post any more photos on my blog...maybe there's a limit of some sorts. i suppose all photos will have to be seen via snapfish :(

tonight is a lazy night after a looong week...we're gonna settle in and watch a movie.

madrid day 7

today was delightful. jenny & i went exploring this afternoon for hours and hours on foot. the rain yesterday made the afternoon so clear and bright, it was lovely. the buildings really looked pristine. the weather was so enjoyable, too--it was brisk for the first time since we'd been here. for some reason i can't post photos, sooo they're all on snapfish. i miss you. and you. and HAPPY 20th BDAY, MILES!!!

madrid day 6

and also there was a storm today. it was amazing. spain has had a heat wave this whole summer. and in case you couldn't feel it, it's the talk of the town. but this afternoon, around 5pm the wooden doors to our balcony kept swinging open, and the house was almost rattling with all the wind that came through...we stepped onto the balcony to see pouring rain, lightning & tumultous clouds.

exciting stuff.

maybe it won't be so hot tomorrow.

in other news, i am really enjoying my spanish classes...

disculpame

me olvido de compartir lo mas importante cosa que paso ayer. era el aniversario de pablo y yo--un ano y medio! lo extrano muchisimo y lo quiero. estoy feliz que el esta divertiendo en costa rica, pero quiero hablar con el mas frecuentamente. estoy enamorado con el.

madrid day 5

son las 10 de la noche y tengo sueno! y todavia no hemos comido la cena... (it's 10pm and i'm tired! and we still haven't eaten dinner) i'm definitely getting used to the schedule b/c i'm not even hungry. although i'm wiped out. these 7am mornings son imposible sin siesta! (they're impossible without a siesta). my spanish is pouring into my thoughts.
<--that's me starting out the day with a cup of cafe...
today we began classes--2 sessions of language & one of culture & conversation. i am in a class with 15 others who tested into the same level, so i got to meet some new people which was fun. tonight felt a bit more like a school night with the bit of homework that i had, although it's still such a different feeling being in the city & attending school. all the bustle sort of blurs the feeling of being a student. even when things are different at stanford, everyone's of the same mind set pretty much. here, we just kind of blend in.
this afternoon katie, jenny & i met carlos & 2 ladies for an afternoon boating in retiro park--the biggest park in madrid.it was gorgeous, though extremely hot! this was the 3rd of our planned activities with ISA--it will feel so strange when the other program students arrive, and the 3 of us turn into 50 students. retiro was lovely & i would very much like to return with a book to spend the afternoon on the shady grass.

madrid day 4

bienvenidos al universidad antonio de nebrija. today was the first day of school. welll, sort of...we had a placement test. but we saw all the other students we'd be studying at the school with-probably 1/2 were international students. probably the biggest group was from brasilia. probably 50-75 kids that we'll be there with doing the language intensive month. there are like 8 levels to fall into...the test was un poco dificil (a bit hard)-3 portions, one of which had 100 multiple choice questions on grammar! yikes. and also an oral section & a fill in the blank.

anyhow, tomorrow classes begin. after the placement test there was a orientation which was a bit intimidating. classroom etiquette is just a bit different than the u.s. to give you an idea, la profesora told us they start training kids at the age of four to sit in a class for 30 minutes straight, and as they get older, increase the time...all to say by the time we're in la universidad we should be able to sit in class for an hour & twenty minutes. absolutely not allowed to leave during that time--it's terrible etiquette.

we have 4 sessions of classes beginning at 8:30 and ending at 2:30, and a "tentiempe" from 11:20-11:40--a very important spanish custom of a snack or bite to eat. they say if they didn't
have this, they'd topple over because the spanish are accustomed to such light breakfasts of just a cup of cafe. she was right...today, we had no tentiempe and i most definitely felt as though i was going to fall over when i got home at 2:15 ready and eager for lunch.

our morning started at 6:30 with adventurous trek & several line changes on el metro--the very efficient, convenient & extra crowded at 7am spanish subway. it took us an hour to arrive at school, but i imagine when we're veteraned it will be a 40 min. ride. class until 230, then home for lunch & a siesta! today we absolutely took one and it was much appreciated.

after the siesta, we met carlos (one of the program directors i mentioned on the first day)--there we are with him--& katie for a bus tour with a tourguide. so many photos. i think i took 75. they will all be on snapfish. this is my favorite of the ride. beautiful. this is the Fuente de Civiles which is a very famous & picturesque fountain in the very center of the historical area of espana.

the tour was delightful, but a bit difficult to follow like the last tour, as the tour guide spoke in very fast spanish, with many words i don't even know. in this blog entry i have noticed my thoughts are beginning to form first in spanish. i will be a pro once classes start.

after the tour, katie, jenny & i walked around in the plaza del opera--a plaza in the center of an arts area that's the equivalent to our broadway. poor katie's luggage STILL hasn't arrived, so she finally caved & bought some clothes at the outdoor market area. this is the street on our walk home from exploring. it was gorgeous. it still amazes me how the street is bustling all throughout the day. it never stops. it is so comfortable to be out and about among the people--i haven't felt overwhelmed yet. summer evenings in spain are indescribable.

madrid day 3

highlight of the day: i found out my family plays canasta all the time. i taught jenny & she's hooked already. it was pretty funny after we played she exclaimed "el jugo es muy divertido!" (jugo=juice, juEgo=game)...happens to the best of us. that's her trying to kiss olivia--the 2nd youngest girl in our family.

we had a really nice time this morning drinking cafe with our senora & talking. (that's when i found out about canasta). we lounged around on this lazy sunday and after lunch played for awhile. our afternoon was broken up by our excursion to find a church jenny had found before coming--the only one in english she could find. we forgot the directions so we went off of memory and got to the place we thought we were supposed to be, but it was nowhere to be found...we actually never found it, although we spoke to someone from the church who told us where it actually is and also that there wasn't evening service tonight after all.

we explored the area we were in more, then katie came home with us to see our place and we taught her canasta, too!

the girls made dinner tonight--our senora and senor were out for cafe together, and tomas the boy is hardly around, as he is shooting a short film on capitalism. so jenny & i dined with olivia, catalina & ana. dinner was delightful & we are turning in early as our big day of classes starts tomorrow at 8am. yikes. hope i can fall asleep more quickly than i have been the last two nights...i still haven't completely adjusted to the time change.

oh ya...i haven't won a game yet--olivia is too good!

madrid day 2

jenny & i just got back from our day at the picasso exhibit at museo del prado. it was unbelievable. we met katie at plaza del sol & took our first metro ride--hooray. we got to el museo without getting lost, although this was after we asked about 5 people how to get to the prado & all of them pointed us in different directions. it was kind of hilarious. when we got off the metro it felt like we were in a different town altogether, the streets were so much wider and the buildings looked even larger and grander so spread out.

the museum was right next to a botanical garden which we will absolutely visit at some point. we got the musuem guides where you push the # as you get to each piece, so everything is at your own pace. it also seemed like a perfect amount of time to examine each piece. each piece told such a story. the guide said "Picasso was determined to unravel the secrets of others" so a lot of his pieces are based off of artists' pieces whom he is fond of. the museum even had THOSE pieces next to his, so it was really amazing to see the life he brought out of the pieces, and to see how he envisioned others' work. i have a long list of favorites, at the very top are:
"Hombre sentado con vaso (Man with Glass)" for its vibrant color, "Cabeza de mujer llorando con panuelo (Weeping woman with handkerchief III)" for the way he depicted her hand and face in a side and backward view & for the political implications of the piece, and "Las meninas (conjunto), segun Velasquez" for the way he so masterfully recreated Velasquez' work into such a story.

(There it is above)

i bought a little guide booklet of all the pieces that were in the exhibit, and flipping through them now i see how these small recreations do his pieces no justice--it was so incredible to see them in full up close at the museum today.

ohh, and so far, i am really enjoying the food :) today for dinner, my senor made grilled chicken, a bowl of caramelized onions to put on top (mmmm), a salad of shredded carrots + olives + hardboiled egg, greens, and small baked potatoes. and for dinner our senora made a rice dish with peas, mushrooms, zuchinni, raisins & some chile. it was made with saffron, but she said it wasn't paella. it was delicious. both jenny & i really like vegetables, so we told her we'd be happy with those anytime & she said she'd be happy to make them anytime.

madrid day 1

i made it! spain is amazing. my roommate jenny was on my flight over, which was pretty crazy, and even crazier, nobody was sitting next to me so we sat together. she's great. maricel, the program director was there to greet us & took us over to our house which is on the fourth floor of a building about 10 minutes walking distance from the center of madrid. we absolutely lucked out with our homestay--the location, the family & the house itself are ideal. we met the three girls we're living with and the dad when we arrived this afternoon around noon--catalina is 21, olivia is 17 & ana is 15. we unpacked and got to know the house, and they prepared lunch for us ( a little earlier than usual ). in this photo you see jenny showing off our room--standing in front of our balcony, and the other photo is taken from our balcony!

jenny & i showered and took a nap at around 2 thinking we'd get up at 4 to walk around. didn't hear the alarm if it went off! so olivia, woke us up at 640 thank goodness because we had a meeting at 7pm at plaza del sol, which is at the center of town. we met maricel there, and she took us to the ISA office (that's the office for the program we're in) and then a tour guide took us around that center area showing us the most historic stuff in that area--city hall, a bunch of monuments & palaces. so many names i can't remember. i'll post photos, though. they were amazing. the city is amazing. oh and we met the third girl of our program--katie. it's only the three of us for the next 2 weeks doing this session of the 1 month of intensive spanish language learning. it will be so much fun getting to know the city together and having some time to ease into things before all the rest of the students come in our program to start classes. after we walked around, we met maricel and carlos who took us to tapas--at this point we were super hungry because it was 10pm & we'd walked around for an hour & hadn't eaten since 1. we're gonna have to get used to it! carlos and maricel are so much fun -- very outgoing, friendly, fun & helpful!!

this is a photo of city hall at night. gorgeous.

we can pick up a wireless signal in this area, so we have internet in our house which is super lucky. this morning (saturday), jenny & i woke up feeling like we've been here for well over a day. we already feel really comfortable in the house. we got to sleep in & walked over to el corte ingles, which is the hugest department store & has everything and anything...we made it out with only what we went in for-adapters. we also exchanged some cash for euros today...gahh we got ripped off. luckily from now on we will only be exchanging our money via banks & atms, so no more exchanging cash for ridiculous rates... today, we're off to el prado museum to see the picasso exhibit, as it'll only be around for a couple more days. photos to follow!

miss you all. everyone download skype. even if you don't get the headset, i can talk to you. hah. and you can type. or we can both just type. excellent.