Don't be sad...Tonight is a fiesta!

After my parents left, I was eating la comida at the table and my host mom must have thought I was sad because she told me, in spanish, "Don't be sad Aliz, tonight is a party!" 

Hmmm a party at our house. I asked if it was for her family and she rolled her eyes and said, "Friends". Haha so I spent the evening helping Ana prepare tapas for the party. Her brazilian friend Pachi was there as well. Pachi put on music and Ana told me with a wink that "te mueres cuando él baila" or "you die when he dances". She was quite right, as I found out later. 

Turns out my host mom has very young friends (22-28 years old) and they are all international. Ana and one other guy were the only spanish people at the party. The rest were columbian, ecuadorian, brazilian, french and american. My friend Emily came to the party with me and basically we have concluded that north americans can't dance. To their credit, everyone tried to help us move our hips and dance. But the salsa, merengue, bachata, etc they were doing was definitely beyond my comprehension. It was a little better when they put hip hop or reggaeton on because at least I have a minor understanding of how to dance to that.  They let me put on some music and they lovedddd M.I.A, rihanna (of course) and the older, random songs like "No scrubs" and "Sorry Ms Jackson". 

It was a lot of fun and definitely made me miss house parties.  I'm ready for some Shire fests over winter break (3 weeks). Then Medford....(6 weeks)!

The family visits...

My family flew back home on Saturday afternoon. It was sad to see them go because we had such a good time together here in Spain. But I'll be home in 20 days!

Highlights of the trip:

-Showing them the Prado - I wouldn't mind being some sort of tour guide, really.

-Outdoor dining in November - The day they arrived was so sunny and beautiful (60's F) we were able to sit outside on a terrace and have lunch

-San Lorenzo de El Escorial - we took a day trip to the mountainous northwest region of madrid where there is an old palace and monastery built by the Austrian spanish rulers. It is a very austere and cold building, but very impressive with great views of madrid and mountains.

-Palacio Real - we went inside the royal palace in Madrid built by the Borbones, the french family that ruled/"rules" spain. It was much, much more decadent than the Escorial. The king and queen still use the palace and dining room for special functions today. They don't live there however. 

-Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum - one of the three large art museums in Madrid and the only one I hadn't gone to. This museum is great. It is a personal collection that spans all the way from primitive Italian and Gothic paintings to Pop art. It's nice to see the progression in painting. 

- Paella- We had a lot of good food. I'd say our actual Thanksgiving was on Wednesday when we went to a nice paella restaurant Balear that turned out to be two blocks from my house. The place was recommended in my Frommer's guide, and it definitely lived up to the reputation. The paella was delicious...I'm making my version of it when I get home. 

- Churros were a big hit. Also I think the spanish version of coffee, specifically café con leche, may have hooked my Dad on caffeine again. 

-Live Jazz - My Mom and Dad went out three nights to here various live musical acts. Three nights! That's more than they go out together all year ...haha no I'm kidding. I went with them one night to a Blues jam session that was a lot of fun to watch. The lead trombonist was actually a New Yorker. I wasn't able to go to the other clubs, but rumor has it that Mr. Stevens brought his trumpet along to one of the places and sat in for a bit. (Only my family would bring a musical instrument and not a computer on a transatlantic trip. )

All in all,  I loved showing my family around the city that I have gotten to know over the past couple of months. I think they were impressed with how well I know how to get around...both on the metro and by foot. Truthfully, I know Madrid better than Boston ...hands down. Even better than Pittsfield, MA but that's not such a loss haha. For me the week felt like a vacation within a vacation. I got to kind of forget about IES crap and hang out with my family! Win win. I know for my family it was rough to travel that far only for a week, but I'm so glad they did because it made my Thanksgiving (and hopefully theirs) one to remember.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Another good one

It's been another good weekend here in Madrid. 

I took my family to the Rastro market today and then to the Prado and then to el parque de buen retiro. A pretty traditional Sunday in Madrid. The Prado was great obviously. I hadn't been there in about a month (?) so it was nice to revisit my favorite paintings. And I got to explain everything I've been learning in my art history classes ...esp GOYA. My favorite thing. Hopefully I didn't bore them too much (haha no, it was the perfect amount of museum). 

After eating and introducing them to a siesta, we went out for some drinks, and ended up at a blues jam session at a club called El Junco. We just got back from the blues club actually. It was my first live music in Madrid...and definitely cool. The leader dude (a wicked sweet trombone player) is actually a New Yorker and after their set my Dad (a trumpet player) went to talk to him....qué mono :)

I have to take leave of my family for a little bit tomorrow because I have class but in the afternoon we are planning on visiting the Palacio Real or royal palace. 

What else?? 

OH! I played an Amish card game (?) thanks to my friend Greg. It's called Dutch Blitz. and frickin rocks.... especially if you like Spit, a game that I like a little too much thanks to the Eden Hill sports camp game room.  

They're here! 

My family is in SPAIN with me for the week!!! Happy (spanish) Thanksgiving!

Random thoughs

Fall has finally come to Madrid. I'm not kidding - the leaves are just starting to really turn yellow and fall down. That reminds me...there are a lot of trees in Madrid. More than I expected. It's a very green city. I would even dare to say that there are more trees in Madrid than in Boston and wayyy more than in the packed streets of Somerville or Medford.  

I also can't get over how it is sunny 90% of the time. I made up that statistic, but basically it's correct. How can you not have fun when you live somewhere so sunny? I love it. 

If you are bored sometime and you like surfing around on Amazon, then you should search for the Culture Smart guides to the USA or some travel guide like it for the US. You can read the first couple of pages of the book if you click on "search inside" and I just find it fascinating the kind of advice they give  international travelers when they come to the US. For example:  

"There's some surprise at how causally Americans dress. 'They never dress up. They have no style' says a Brazilian. 'They just wear jeans and sweat suits, and women don't wear heels.'  'They are very casual but clean.' says a Mexican. 'You can wear anything' said one visitor 'It's very easy to dress. ' "  (hahaha, yea. But thank god about the heels. European women are crazy. I've seen so many old women with horribly deformed and swollen ankles that are STILL wearing heels. Really? Is that necessary?)

"Nothing happens at night. Almost everything closes after 9 PM"

"Very often the friendliness is the first thing people notice. 'They smile to strangers and open the door'  'They are very polite'  'American people talk well to strangers' " (I couldn't find it to quote but one book said that often foreigners misunderstand the friendliness as either sexual advances or being mocked...whoops. )

A slightly more serious book reported that  people who move to the United States often have a very hard time adjusting. Especially if they move into a suburb or a rural area. They have to drive everywhere, stores and restaurants close early, people spend a lot of time at home, and everything is so spread out and large.

I think this sums it up: a Chinese man said "Bring a lot of tapes from home. It's so boring." 

You are correct sir.  It is boring, but that's part of the fun. 

I had, what can only be called, a fabulous weekend.

Thursday night started off with a group of friends going out to dinner at the Pizza Jardin (Pizza Garden). While this may sound lame...it wasn't. The inside is like a huge warehouse and everything is silver, with giant discoballs. My friend Greg who discovered this place initially thought it was a discoteca. The food was a spanish twist on Italian - nothing too amazing, but all in all a good night. I love going out to dinner pretty much anywhere - this may be a hard habit to break when I go home.

Friday my program took a trip to Toledo, which I talked about in the previous post. And Friday night we hit up a bar called Patatus. It's a big, wooden, rustic, sporty, smokey bar with tons of twenty-something spanish people packed together. After making our way to the bar, shedding about three layers, and creating a little circle we had a good time. The best part was their patatas - we bought a big plate of fries for 4 euro. That's very cheap. Drinks were cheap too. New hangout? Es possible.

On Saturday morning after waking up at 8 am voluntarily I realized that I hadn't slept in (as in past 8 or 9) since October 19th. I promptly rolled over and slept until noon.

After such a refreshing sleep, I felt energized and made my way over to the Sorolla museum a couple blocks from my house. Joaquin Sorolla is basically Spain's version of an impressionist painter who lived at the beginning of the twentieth century. His work, although fluffy, is really beautiful. He was quite rich and they kept his large house intact and created a museum out of it. It's an intimate museum that showcases both his work and decorating sense. I recommend it to anyone who comes to Madrid. It's not as intimidating as the Prado and a LOT more welcoming than the sometimes creepy Reina Sofia.

Niñas en el mar 1909 (I'm writing my paper on this painting)

Saturday night was fun because we hung out with a group of Spanish kids at a hole-in-the-wall German bar. This may sound silly, but I haven't met many madrileños (besides my host family). I knew before coming here that it is difficult to make friends with spanish peers. They often have the same friends from childhood on and get used to international students coming and going; it's not necessarily exciting for them to meet americans because there are so many around each year. That being said, hopefully we can hang out with the group again this week!!!

Sunday was a good day as well. It began with Emily, Anna, and I going to the Rastro and filming a video for a class. It's pretty ridiculous, as all school videos tend to be. I'm pretty sure I swear a couple of times and burst out laughing at random.

Thanks to one of the strongest cafes con leche I've ever had, I didn't get tired all day, so Emily and I went to an Atlético Madrid soccer game. Atleti is one of two professional teams in Madrid the other being David Beckham's former team (and the arguably more popular team) Real Madrid. I'm glad we saw Atlético Madrid play, they have really cool red and white striped jerseys with blue shorts. They won 4-1 against a team from ... somewhere. We sat pretty high up, but I really don't think there are any bad seats in the stadium. You can see the field clearly from all over. One thing Emily noticed was that no one was eating or drinking in the stadium. That is SO spanish. For them, food is taken sitting down at home or in a restaurant, not in public. There is no grab and go. No eating in class or in the metro. (I actually like the no eating in class rule. Last year in orgo I saw a girl pull out hot soup....and a spoon. That's just weird.) I'm getting off topic - to summarize soccer in europe > soccer at home.

WooHoo good weekend.

And you probably don't care about this (except you mom and dad) but I registered for spring classes last week and I am taking: Analytical Chemistry, Calculus III, Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Crises in Africa, Special Topics in Global Health, Latin American civilization, and Chem Research (hopefully, finger's crossed about this one). I'm excited about the Africa class, especially. I also found out that my advisor will be on sabbatical next semester :(. Should be an interesting semester...

pregnant chinchilla?

Along with a cat and a rabbit, my host mom also has three chinchillas. You know, " crepuscular rodents, slightly larger than ground squirrels, native to the Andes mountains in South America." And guess what? One is very pregnant. So soon the three chinchillas will be four and the lovely nocturnal chirping/barking/scratching noises they make will be even louder. Joy. 

Other news: I am so excited to spend a weekend in Madrid. I've been gone the last three weekends. A little crazy. Tonight my friends and I are going to a popular bar near where I live and then possibly Kapital, the largest discoteca, if we are up for it. 

Today we traveled to Toledo, Spain. It's a small, very old city in the region Castilla y La Mancha of Spain. The old buildings and narrow cobblestone streets were very nice. I was most impressed by the huge gothic cathedral. Construction started on the cathedral in 1226 and took about 300 years. It was especially pretty because it was built out of white stone (marble?) which, along with huge stained glassed windows, made for a very luminous cathedral. The cathedral doubled as an art museum as well. The spanish painter El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) lived and worked in Toledo so the cathedral housed some of his portraits along with a spattering of other painters including Caravaggio and Zubarban. 

Toledo is also famous for mazapan or marzipan. Before I went here I didn't really know what marzipan was but it's a moist and chewy almond meal- sugar cookie. Very rich, but it really doesn't taste like much. The texture was the best part. 

My family is coming to visit me in Madrid a week from today! 

Rome

Ahhh Roma. Grazie. Prego! That's pretty much all the Italian I picked up. Although menus, street signs, and even some conversations were easily understood because of the similarities between italian and spanish. Not to mention the fact that Italian food and pasta (spaghetti, ravioli, lasagna) has penetrated most of western culture so menus are pretty self explanatory as it is. 

What did I like most about Rome?

~ Trevi Fountain...... beautiful at night

~Colosseum ......for obvious reasons. It's effing amazing. 

~Gelato .....muy rico y delicioso and perfect for my insatiable sweet tooth

~ Traveling with Virginia.....we had an excellent time together and managed to see most of Rome in three days

~Getting asked about Obama! 

~The Sistine Chapel and Raphael rooms.....very impressive to this day

~Stumbling upon the Pantheon unknowingly

~Free pasta dinner arranged by our hostel

~Meeting a Dutch person......(i really think they are the coolest)

~Listening to Italian

~ Pizza! thin crust and yummy

Visiting Rome was great. People had warned us that the traffic was crazy and it was hard to get around. The traffic may have been louder and faster than Madrid, but we found the city very manageable by foot. There are also some conveniently located metro stops at the Vatican and spanish steps to aid travel, but otherwise we walked everywhere. Rome was also surprisingly cheap. We didn't shop in Dolce and Gabbana or Fendi haha, but the places we did go were reasonable... and I thought such a touristy place would hike up the prices. 

Update

The last two weekends I have traveled to two of the most well known cities in the world (Rome and Paris), and what is the first thing I talk about?  The tiny place where I grew up. People who live in Berkshire county and people from small towns  all over the world share a common love for "small world" stories. Because I belong to this aforementioned group, I love them too. Probably a little too much....On the return flight from Rome to Madrid this morning my friend Virginia and I were sitting in our sits discussing our trip when two American men sat in the seats in front of us. We had heard A LOT of english during our trip to Rome, wayyy more than is spoken in Madrid, so this wasn't too strange until I heard them start talking about the Clark art museum and Mass MOCA (museum of contemporary art), both of which are located about 40 minutes from my house. They were in an intense discussion for most of the flight, but after we landed I interrupted them and told them I was from Great Barrington! 

They were pretty shocked and frankly a little worried that I had overheard a lot of inside museum gossip haha.....but the older man turned out to be the director of the Clark and the younger guy the assistant director. They had been in Rome meeting with museum directors and are in Madrid to attend meetings/negotiations at the Prado about any works that could be brought to Massachusetts for an exhibition. 

As the plane taxied we talked about colleges because it turns out the director's son wants to look at Occidental where Virginia goes. He also loves my town Great Barrington and wants to move both his house and the museum there to attract more visitors. He even thought he knew what house I lived in!  Baba Louie's, the triplex, and the coffee shop on Main Street were all brought up and it was nice to think about something so familiar after being in Rome for a bit. (Then..... I named dropped the Fitzpatrick's so Mom expect an email at work...)

I will be posting about Rome and Paris soon...after la siesta?

Logging onto facebook it is crazy/amazing to see how everyone has "donated" there status to remind people to vote Obama tomorrow. I am very hopeful that for the first time, the youth will put its money where its mouth is and actually vote. That would make me proud. Really proud. I mean the older generations who voted for Bush completely screwed the youth, so it's about time we did something. This passage is from Thomas Friedman's NYT column from November 1:

We are all going to have to pay [for the economic crisis], because this meltdown comes in the context of what has been “perhaps the greatest wealth transfer since the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917,” says Michael Mandelbaum, author of “Democracy’s Good Name.” “It is not a wealth transfer from rich to poor that the Bush administration will be remembered for. It is a wealth transfer from the future to the present.”

Never has one generation spent so much of its children’s wealth in such a short period of time with so little to show for it as in the Bush years. Under George W. Bush, America has foisted onto future generations a huge financial burden to finance our current tax cuts, wars and now bailouts. Just paying off those debts will require significant sacrifices. But when you add the destruction of wealth that has taken place in the last two months in the markets, and the need for more bailouts, you understand why this is not going to be a painless recovery. 

I'm nervous. Please, please, please gobama!