Orientation is over. Therefore I can’t get lost anymore?

I survived the first week of classes!  And I’ve only managed to change my course schedule three times.  That may be a record.  However, this can get pretty tricky when I have to take 5 of the 20-ish classes offered (5 of which are grammar and I can only take one of these).  There are limited options on limited topics, which don’t seem to line up with my nearly unlimited interests.  The drop/add period ended, so I sure hope my newest schedule is a little more suitable.

The rundown:

Grammar class: Mandatory; Monday through Thursday, 9am.  It’s a good thing I sort of like grammar (no joke).  After the placement tests last week I was really unsure of where I’d fall in the mix.  But to my surprise (and boy was I surprised…), I found myself in level five (out of five).  Confusing?  Yes, very.  Want to know why it was extra confusing to me?  The professor who teaches level five was my same professor from orientation classes.  For what feels like the first time in my life, I’ve encountered a teacher with whom I can’t seem to get along.  Long story short, she asked for my travel plans and I told her where I wanted to go and why (Canary Islands – to listen to the silbo gomero, a language all of whistling), and she disliked my reasoning and argued with me that it was a bad choice.  Yeah, okay no big deal.  She argues with everyone, but she caught me at a bad time to pick a fight and I haven’t been pleased with her since then.  When I learned I was in her class, it was bittersweet.  I’ve decided to take this as the challenge that it is.  I will win her over and attempt a good grade at the same time.  And go to the Canary Islands.

Spain and the European Union: I had high hopes.  They were crushed when all we did was talk about econ theories that I would struggle to grasp in English and then reverted back to microeconomics topics.  Didn’t hold my interest….

Contemporary Spanish and Latin American Women Writers: During the first class I was pretty excited about this one and thought it could lead to good discussion and interesting reads.  By the second class, I was convinced otherwise.  Dropped that class too.

Legal and Political Structure of Modern Spain: Semi-interesting so far.  The professor seems cool and excited to teach us something/anything.  I’ll stay in this class.

El Greco, Velázquez, and Goya in the Prado Museum:  Yes, in the Prado museum.  Twice a week I have class in a famous art museum in Madrid.  Even if this class were horrible, which it isn’t, I’d stay in it just for the experience.  Good thing it’s kind of cool so far.  The professor is really passionate about the art and the details and teaching us.  And, as a neat little coincidence, he is my host mom’s younger brother.  Crazy.  Perhaps we will chitchat about art or something over some tapas with the family.  Or not…just a thought.

That leaves me with two more classes that I need.  So I picked up Almodóvar and his Contemporaries: The Image of Women in Spanish Film and Cultural Myths and Spanish Literature.  So far I haven’t been to the film one but I’ve heard good reviews.  The professor is so entertaining; I don’t know where to begin.  He is energetic, dramatic, very young, etc.  I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to sit through the 1.5 hours without laughing at least a dozen times.

What else have I done besides gone to class this week?  There are many adventures, but a few include textbook shopping that lead to the discovery of the most wonderful book store ever, making friends with a baker at a bakery around the corner from me (where I intend to become a regular), enjoying the royal botanical gardens, and finding a cool neighborhood with international cuisine and vintage clothing.

The bookstore: You’ll be seduced by the perfect lighting, soothing music, and smell of new books within seconds of walking through the door.  It’s heavenly

The bakery: Conveniently located near the bookstore; the baker is a sweet woman who explained the difference between many indulgences for me (and gave me a little discount!).  She was patient and kind and my new favorite pastry seller…

The botanical gardens: well…beautiful.  I can’t even imagine them in the spring.  I only took 150 pictures.

The neighborhood:  American bakery, French crepes, Italian everything on one corner.  Two small plazas, plenty of shopping, cobblestone streets.  I approve.

Quaint.

American bakery storefront. 

They sold "classic American treats" like cupcakes, brownies, peanut butter, marshmallows, Dr. Pepper, Betty Crocker mixes, etc.

OJO!  This was a Hanes ad originally.  I used it in a project for a COMM class last fall.  Scroll to the bottom to see it.

I had one of these bad boys.  Yummy.

Lucky Charms!!!!  I was so close to buying them.  Then I saw they cost 12 euros.

All in all, the start of classes wasn’t terrible.  It marked the end orientation when I basically had no responsibility, but I’ve missed productivity a smidgen as well.  You’ve read enough for now!  At least about this stuff.. hasta luego!

PS – Orientation may be over, but I still get lost from time to time.

PPS - I know it's really early in the game for this, but I've been having food cravings for things (such as the Lucky Charms pictured above) that are damn near impossible to find here.  If you'd like to send me a package of tasty treats that the Spaniards are lacking, I'll gladly accept your donations (and provide you with my address).  : )

The start of many adventures

Friday was my favorite day so far.  Even though I didn’t get home until 3am and was still running on very little sleep, I got up at 8:30 to head to Salamanca with some friends.  I took the metro for a half hour to get to the bus.  When we were all at the bus station we went to buy our tickets.  As it turns out, the closer you get to departure, the more expensive the ticket.  10 minutes of checking prices apart raised the price by 5 euro.  Our once cheap, spur the moment trip turned into quite the expense.  That being said, we opted out of going to Salamanca for the day, and decided that we would plan it further in advance so we could get round trip tickets for much less money.

Since we were already awake and out, we decided to go on a little adventure.  We have these excellent passes called abonos, and they get you unlimited public transportation each month (and this is the best public transit I've ever witnessed).  My idea, which was only half successful on Friday will be fully executed in the coming weeks, is to take the metro to random areas of the city and explore.  On Friday we picked an area of town, took the metro there, and walked the city and had adventures from about 11am-6pm.  It was a blast.  We also designated it as a tourist day where we broke out our cameras and tried to capture some of the beauty to share with you.  A few of my 200+ pictures are below.

Plaza Mayor

Revisiting the Palacio Real for the second day in a row.

Cute little streets by the Plaza Mayor.  Apparently this woman really liked being in my picture.

On Gran Vía

Prado Museum

Ever since I got here I’ve been having these flash backs to my last trip to Madrid in 2008.  That was a much different experience, and much more sheltered.  Last time I was on a bus with 100 Americans and we were shuttled on and off and to different parts of town, not having any sense for how places were connected and their locations or meanings.  All day yesterday especially I kept finding places were I had been and just kind of got lost in the moment.  It’s been about three years since my last trip here and so much as changed since then.  But the one thing that has stayed the same is my absolute adoration for Madrid (and Spain in general).  I’m in a complete love bubble with this place and I have no regrets for coming to Madrid over Buenos Aires.  It’s so… enchanting.  It’s even better than Disney World.  One day this will be my home for more than a few months.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve overcome the jet lag.  My exhaustion now strictly stems from the countless miles I walk every day and the extremely different schedule here.  In short, I get up early for class, then come home for lunch and maybe rest a little, then meet up with people to hang out, dinner between 9 and 11, then go out until the wee hours of the morning (or later).  It’s so different, and so entertaining.

Our second night out we went on a pretty lame bar crawl, but then went to a very popular discoteca (nightclub) called Kapital afterwards.  It’s seven floors, each with a different “theme.”  It’s a little confusing because the floors aren’t numbered, so you basically just have to count from the top or bottom to figure out where you are.  The top floor is open-air and really relaxed, which is a polar opposite of the other six floors.  The first floor was completely packed the entire night, and was probably the most fun area.  The fourth was all Hispanic music, which was also really cool.  I was surprised by the amount of American Top 40 that was played throughout the club.  We almost stayed until the Metro started running again, but decided to call it a night around 4:30-5am and a bunch of us from the neighborhood shared a taxi home.  I was exhausted and my feet were killing me, but it was worth it.  Saturday should be another fun day of exploring (if my feet will allow it)!

Hasta luego.