English Perspective

Just a short one today, as I have a lot of homework to get through before four classes tomorrow. This post was inspired by today's purchase of a can of Pringles, which seems to be, for some reason, the only potato chips sold at the grocery store by my school. (Sidenote, somehow in Spain, sour cream and onion Pringles taste like America.)

Before I came to Spain I thought that English pervaded the globe and that due to Western imperialism and English-speaker laziness, essentially everyone in the world spoke some degree of English. Upon arriving in Spain, I immediately found out this is not true. My land lady, who rents this apartment to NYU students every semester doesn't speak any English (although she seems to like the word "flight"). And I soon came to learn she wasn't an oddity. Well, she is, but not because she doesn't speak English. (Ruth is a cool lady in her 60s who loves to chat and wants to make sure everything is okay and also likes to wear leopard print. But I digress.)

Products here often have labels in several languages. We got a carton of rice milk a while ago (after a bad experience with some regular milk) and it had a description of the product on the back and side in at least a dozen languages, but not one of them was English. This I do find odd. And I thought about this today because the Pringles container, God bless it, does have English on it. I don't know how the kids here who don't speak any Spanish are getting by though, because in so many cases there is no English to help you out. However, I think just as everything is coming to be in Spanish in addition to English in the States, some things here are in both Spanish and English. All the signs next to artworks at the Prado are in both languages, though often maltranslated. I wonder if things translated into Spanish in America are so grammatically incorrect.

Anyway, that is my minor musing for today. My Spanish is getting so much better due to daily use and with some help from my friend Alejandro. We talk on facebook and I told him to correct me whenever my grammar or a word is wrong, so I'm learning all the time! Now if I could just speak as well as I write... (Not to mention the minor problem that my English skills diminishing as my Spanish ones improve.)

Segovia!

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I present the long-awaited post about the trip to Segovia (September 2, 2011). We had to meet "promptly" at 9 at the school to leave for Segovia. Of course, nothing happens "promptly" here, so I was on time for waiting for fifteen minutes. And mind you, I live at least half an hour from school by public transit. (And I hadn't mastered the bus yet, and the metro takes longer.) Anyway, two hour bus ride, sitting with my friends Boris and Matt, taking in the scenery, and then we arrived at Segovia!

I'm going to do this basically through pictures - this is a very small selection of the almost-100 photos I took that day. If you're friends with me on facebook, they're all there. If not, I'll try to upload them to a share site like shutterfly in the near future. Here we go:

This is a Roman aqueduct. Yeah like from 2000 years ago. And it still functions. And on the right is a café that Hemingway really liked.

This is what pretty much all the streets in Segovia look like. And beyond it you can see the mountains. (Mountains! Not prairie! I'm confused.)

Which means there are also a lot of hills. And stairs. Like these.

This is me on top of an old Roman wall, with the Cathedral in the background, included mostly as proof that I was there.

Don't remember exactly what this was, just thought it looked cool.

Typical Segovia.

Inside the cathedral!!!

Many different types of art are displayed, because the cathedral took over 100 years to build.

Cathedral hallway, to give a sense of scale.

This is an organ. I don't know why this picture is sideways. Blogger won't let me rotate it and I'm too lazy to go fix it. Turn your heads if you're really curious. :)

You get one guess why I took this picture.

(It's because of the stained glass light reflection. Duh.)

Monastery hallway, from the 16th century.

Commence Cathedral obsession

Okay so I like to be artsy sometimes. (Okay all the time.)

To the CASTLE! I've been obsessed with castles since I started reading Harry Potter. In case you didn't know. So I've been obsessed with castles since I was eight.

Alcázar, the castle, one of two castles upon which Disney based the Cinderella Castle. No joke. Can't you see it? (I think this is also the basis for every lego castle, based on the left-hand side.)

Guys, it's like a freakin' Gryffindor shield. On the wall of a castle that is at least 500 years old.

Armour. So cool.

Gryffindor bed! (This is really all just because the colors of Spain are red and gold, like Gryffindor.)

Artsy picture of the Spanish countryside through some windows, and my friend Yasmín. (Hi I like backlight it makes things dramatic.)

Possibly graffiti that is 15 years older than me?

View of the Cathedral from the top of the Tower of Juan II - 152 steps up

One last view of the Cathedral, with a flock of Hitchcock-esque birds flying in front of it.

After a two hour bus ride there and three hours of walking around, we were let free for lunch. I ate with a couple girls from my group in the Plaza Mayor and had croquetas. I'm not quite sure how to explain croquetas. They're made of a sort of paste of flour and milk (that I thought was potatoes until my cooking class), with various fillings - most commonly jamón, like these. The paste gets cut into pieces and breaded with breadcrumbs and then fried, so they look a lot like mozzarella sticks. And they're really delicious. After lunch we all met back in front of the cathedral (where I took that last picture) and headed back to the busses. We were all pretty tired and most of us, myself included, napped all the way back to Madrid.

Gosh it's gotten late as I've been telling my story! Well goodnight, friends, and see you again soon - when I must tell you about my failed attempts at finding live music, and also my success. ¡Buenas noches!

Mini-Success Update!

So I had to argue a lot (in Spanish) to make it happen, but I'm switching into the other Spanish class. Both teachers were worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the pace of the work now that they're done reviewing, but I wasn't lost today and with class only two days a week, I have no excuse to not do all my work and understand everything. So I'm not worried. ¡Yaaay! Let's hope getting into that class was the hardest thing I have to do this semester...

I Love the 80s

Ok so you know I love 80s music. As in I'm pretty sure I didn't listen to anything other than Mötley Crüe all summer. (Yeah, I can do umlauts now too. Keyboard exploring!) Aaanyway, my first day here, I found this:

It's TWO BLOCKS from my apartment. TWO. It probably takes me more time to get downstairs from my apartment than it takes to walk from my front door to this place. But I haven't been yet. Hopefully Nidhi (my roommate) and I are going on Tuesday night, when we're hosting two couch surfers from Salt Lake City for the night. They said in their profile that they like 80s music, so hopefully we'll have a good time.

There actually seems to be an obsession here (I'm not sure if here means Madrid, Spain, or Europe) with American music, particularly 80s rock/classic rock in general/punk. Today at El Rastro I saw several booths selling nothing but band t-shirts, most of which sported logos of groups like AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Green Day, Iron Maiden, etc. I find it really weird, kind of funny, and extremely comforting. It's nice to have something familiar around in all the Spanish. There's a "rock club" just a block from this 80s bar, and in another neighborhood I found a classic rock bar. So I'll have to check out those places as well. But first, Héroe and then flamenco! My friends and I attempted to go to a flamenco place on Thursday night (because we don't have class on Fridays, what I don't have class on Fridays?) but it didn't exist. So instead we did a lot of wandering around a barrio called La Latina which was pretty cool. BUT. We need to find flamenco.

I love the 80s. El fin.

Mi Casa Es Su Casa

Here's where I'm living, and you're welcome to come visit!

I'm incredibly lucky to be living in a barrio called Huertas, which is located about ten minutes (walking distance) from Puerta del Sol, which is the center of the city. I'm also only about ten minutes away from the Museo del Prado, the major art museum of Madrid, and fifteen minutes from both Parque del Retiro (Madrid's Central Park) and the Reina Sofia, the museum of contemporary art which I visited in my first week here.

My street is full of little bars, restaurants, clubs, and a few stores. There's the pastelería I mentioned across the street, and an ice cream place I really like just up a few blocks. Since Spaniards stay out so late, my street is alive far into the night and the early hours of the morning. There's always music playing outside my window in the evening, which I love.

So. Now for the tour!

Aquí está my bedroom. The walls are really yellow. The bed's actually pretty comfortable and takes up most of the room. Just to the left of this picture is my closet, which has almost nothing in it because I brought very little with me. I literally have six things on hangars. Haha.

This is el baño. We have a little window! Not much else to say.

This is the view of the kitchen from the front door. On the left is the table and three chairs, behind it is where we keep our dry goods (mostly pasta and a big jar of peanut butter that my roommate brought from America). The door next to it leads to our living room. To the right is the poster of NYC we found in the apartment, and then the microwave, oven/stove, cabinets, etc.

The rest of the kitchen. Sink, big window (where we can sometimes see our neighbor across the air shaft who is a middle-aged fat man who often doesn't wear a shirt), washing machine, and refrigerator/freezer. The open door is my roommate's room, the closed one is our front door. Many locks.

View of the living room from the door - a table with two chairs, a wall of windows, stylish lamps, a three-piece sectional sofa with two more pieces as individual chairs, and a square coffee table.

The living room from the other end - more yellow walls, a mirror, a sideboard on which we put candles, a wall with several shelves including some books former tenants have left here.

So that's about it for now. I'm currently in my comfy bed in my yellow room, and I think I'm going to take a nap before going out for sangria later and doing some homework. Tired due to a trip to El Rastro today, which is the big flea market they have every Sunday in La Latina. I got a new purse and a cute dress, all for a total of 20 euros! (See Mom, I spent some money.) Before I leave Spain I will definitely have bought a leather jacket. Saw one today for 30 euros, but I'm going to wait for now since our weather has been in the 90s every day and shows no signs of cooling off any time soon. ¡Hasta luego! 

(I've also gotten really good at typing in Spanish - note my inverted exclamation point. I can do inverted question marks, accents, and tildes too!)

Stepping Out into the Night

Welcome, friends, to my blog dedicated to my three and a half months in Madrid. I have just embarked upon a wild journey that is sure to take me to unforseen places and teach me unexpected things. Already I have been here two weeks and learned much, so let me bring you up to speed...

Chicago to Madrid...
I flew out of O'Hare on the evening of August 27th on a direct flight to Barcelona. The flight was about 8 hours, landing me in Spain around 10am local time (but 3 am in my brain). I then had a short layover followed by a short hour and twenty minute long flight to Madrid. No trouble with my bags, and once the shuttle finally arrived to take me to my apartment, I arrived at my new home around 4 in the afternoon, and my landlady, Ruth, promptly appeared out of nowhere to help me carry my suitcases up the five - count them five - flights of stairs to my beautiful new apartment.

The Apartment...
I share this apartment with one other girl who is also an NYU student. Nidhi is an anthropology pre-med major in her junior year and is from outside of Rochester, New York. So far we've gotten along fairly well, cooperatively cleaning our entire apartment last weekend after being thoroughly disgusted at hour dirty the floors seemed to be. Upon my arrival Ruth told me (through much perseverance, due to her non-existant English and my mediocre Spanish) that there was a problem with the tap in the kitchen, which had no hot water and she hoped to get it fixed the next day. It was, but then there was a leak, which we got fixed a few days later. NOW, everything is lovely. Nidhi and I each have our own bedrooms: mine is only slightly larger than my full-sized bed but has a large closet, a small window that gets lots of western sun, and a skylight (though it's frosted, so I can't actually see the sky); Nidhi's room is slightly smaller with a twin bed and an armoire, but several large windows. Our bedrooms are both painted yellow, as are two of the four walls in our humongous living room, which has tons of natural light due to a wall of windows, a five-piece sectional couch (three pieces are currently making the couch and two are separate as chairs) situated around a coffee table, a dining table with two chairs, a sideboard with cabinets, a TV, and several shelves (one of which includes a small library of books left by previous student renters). We also have a kitchen-dining room with a table and three chairs, a refrigerator-freezer, a microwave, an oven and stove, and a washing machine. Dryers are incredibly rare in Spain, and everyone hangs their clothes out to dry on lines or on racks.
Our place is really well located, in a barrio called Huertas, which is close to The Prado Museum (art up through the 19th century) and the Reina Sofia Museum (contemporary art), as well as Retiro Park just beyond (a 10-15 minute walk), and in the other direction is Puerta del Sol, pretty much the center of the center of the city, just ten minutes away. We're also only a 5-10 minute walk from two metro stops and a bus stop, so getting around is really simple. Huertas is full of bars, clubs, and restaurants, which makes it a little pricey buy very trendy. I can always hear music out my window at night, which is great.

Daily Life...
Breakfast happens mostly at home, cereal and milk or bread with butter and jelly, and I've even made eggs a few times. One thing I already miss about America - teflon. Our pans are not non-stick, and that makes washing them after eggs a huge pain. If I don't have time to eat before we leave, I grab a croissant from the pastelería across the street or from Café Segre just down the street from school. Pastries here are generally pretty cheap and really delicious.
I can take the metro but usually take the bus to and from school - Madrid's public transportation system is incredibly simple. It's pretty hard to get lost on the metro, and the busses are really quick and on time. I've been packing a lunch to bring to school each day, because most restaurants (at least in my neighborhood and around school) are pretty expensive. While the menu del día is a pretty good deal for the amount of food you get, I'm trying not to spend the equivalent of $11 on lunch every day. Instead I probably bought about $11 worth of groceries for lunch for the week. The tough part to get used to is that Spaniards don't eat lunch until  2 at the earliest. I have class every day until 2:30 (Monday and Wednesday start at 12:30, and Tuesday and Thursday start at 9:30) and by then I'm very ready for lunch.
Generally my roommate and I cook dinner at home - frequently some kind of pasta, though we plan about once a week to have burritos of beans cooked with onions and garlic and fresh guacamole with fresh lime juice. Once we figured out where to go grocery shopping, cooking got really easy. There's a cheap grocery store right by school and a chain called Dia everywhere that's great. Supermarkets here are much smaller than in America though. Then there's the alimentación right under our apartment - which is a food shop that has fruits/vegetables and dry goods. The guy who owns it just opened the place and knows we live just upstairs, as we're there almost every day to buy a tomato or paper towels or something. Dinner doesn't happen in Madrid until about 9 (when it starts getting dark), but since lunch is later, that's not so much trouble. There have been nights Nidhi and I have eaten at 10 or 11, but generally our cooking has been a success.
After dinner, if I don't have class at 9:30 the next morning (or, once in a while, even if I do) we'll often go out for a drink or to a place with music. Even on weeknights here places stay open until at least 1 or 2 in the morning, and my street doesn't really quiet down until around 4. Lots of cervecerias have pretty cheap beer - often beer and water cost about the same here, and soda is sometimes more expensive. I've become quite a fan of Sangria and also had a lot of wine - not too much beer yet, personally.

School?
So I have classes, sometimes. Currently I'm in an intensive Spanish class that meets four days a week, but I might be switching up a level because I was bored every day last week. On a better note, my class about Federico García Lorca's theatre and poetry is wonderful; my teacher is quite a firecracker, which is exactly what we need at 9:30 in the morning. I'm also taking a class in Spanish about contemporary Spanish culture which I hope will broaden my perspectives about the world and make me more aware of my life in Madrid, and I'm taking a class called Masterpieces of the Prado which is an art history course covering the 15th century to the 19th century and involves weekly visits to the Prado. I generally like my classes though having this much academic work and having to sit and listen to teachers talk so much during the day is a really strange experience compared to having studio three days a week and doing a lot of things that often involve making strange sounds or rolling around on the floor. Our school's campus is two townhouses that are back to back, connected by a lovely patio where students hang out and eat lunch or chat between classes. So far it's only sort of rained for part of one day in the two weeks I've been here, and the high has always been in the high 80s or low 90s, so it's hot - but not humid!

Nightlife!
Whatever New Yorkers say, Madrid is truly the city that never sleeps. It's incredibly common to stay out here until 4 in the morning or later - the subway closes sometime between 12:30 and 2:30 in the morning depending on the day of the week, so frequently if people are out until 4, they'll just stay out until the metro reopens at 6 am. This is why people take siestas in the middle of the day. I am a big fan of the siesta. Since I've been here I've got out to some random bars (mojitos are my favorite here), searched for both a jazz club and a flamenco club that turned out to be non-existent, and sat around in parks with friends sharing bottles of wine. It's very common here to spend hours sitting in a park with friends, and though I don't think it's technically legal, everyone drinks in the streets and parks at night. Last night we did manage to find a real jazz club which is actually just up the street from me. It's called Café Central and I went last night with a bunch of friends to hear a live jazz quartet. There was a fee to get in, but somehow we ended up with coupons for a free drink after the show, so it was actually a really good deal - for about $17 I got a live show and a mojito. Haha. Definitely want to go back there, as they have different acts every week or so, and the people who work there seem really nice. Actually Madrileños in general are really nice, helpful, chatty people, though they often speak little to no English.

I think that's about it for now. Soon to come: pictures of my apartment, sights in Madrid, and Segovia - as well as all about the day trip to Segovia which involved a cathedral and a castle!

¡Hasta luego!