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.