Soccer/Fútbol

I've never really been a big soccer fan and that hasn't really changed even though I'm in a place obsessed with it, but last night a group of my friends and I went to watch one of the biggest games in Spain - Real Madrid v. Barcelona - and it was actually a great time. It was a little different watching sports without either my clarinet or a couch, but everyone's excitement and chanting created a pretty good atmosphere. We decided to go to an Irish place because the commentary would be broadcast in English and also because we had a few Barcelona fans and a few Madrid fans in our group and this way we weren't at a place filled entirely with fans of just one team.
My program offers a class called "Soccer Obsession" which I went to for the first two weeks I was here - unfortunately it's only for business majors and is only taught in English, which means I can't take it, and then I got my internship so I have less time as well - but I think it's really cool that you could have an entire class on the business that is soccer. It's definitely much more than just a game here :)

My new background on my computer   :)

Family

Normally airline strikes are unfortunate events for all those involved and affected, but for me it worked out great because my family got to come to visit me a day early :D Although it was a more than a bit stressful for my mom (and Julia didn't have time to decorate her nails) it was an interesting start to a wonderful yet cold week.

Mom, Dad, and Julia got to see all of the important tourist destinations in Madrid: the Prado, Gran Via, Mercado San Miguel, try black paella in Chueca and chocolate and churros in a few places, Plaza del Sol, Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace, Plaza de España, lots of old churches, the Sorolla museum, Principe Pio, Retiro Park, and everywhere we walked through too!

In front of the Royal Palace

Trying Black Paella

We also took a day trip to Toledo on Wednesday which was gorgeous and had a tour of the cathedral and got some amazing views.

In Toledo

On Thursday night we were invited to dinner at my host family's apartment so Mom, Dad, and Julia got to meet my family, see where I'm staying, and have a really nice meal.

I believe Mom has a quite successful list of about 10 birds she saw (maybe more), Julia took pictures of them and us for her, and Dad has now added the words for 'cookie' (galleta) and 'beer' (cerveza) to his vocabulary of 'tacos' so it was a very successful week ;)

Segovia

Last Friday we took a day trip to Segovia, a city about an hour NW of Madrid. There we got to see the aquaduct that's still intact from Roman times, which is pretty cool especially because they didn't use any mortar and the aquaduct is a few stories high. We also saw the cathedral, of course, which was nice but like all the other ones in every city we've visited, much too cold. This cathedral was more of a mix between gothic style and renaissance style (which means it had lots of spires and detailed carvings but also had a dome) and left me thinking that I might like the renaissance style architecture a bit more. And our last stop of the day was at Alcazar - an old castle with moat and peacocks and all. Walking through the Alcazar was definitely my favorite part of the day - they had some of the original furniture and paintings (on the ceilings and on the walls) and we got to climb up to one of the towers and look out from the top.

Gothic/Renaissance-style Cathedral of Segovia

Aquaduct

Another highlight from last weekend is that I found out one of my friends lives 11 minutes walking from my house :)  (We didn't know there was a way to cross over the highway)

A bit of catching up

A bit of catching up

I've been in Spain for over a month now and done a ton. I'm not going to try to write a post for everything so far because that would just be crazy and my pictures on Facebook have kept people a bit updated on what's been happening. But just for some highlights of the first month...

Orientation:

After a flight from Boston to Toronto to Frankfurt to Madrid, a bed was all I wanted and exactly what I got :) Arrival day we were picked up from the airport and had sleeping time in our hotel until dinner when we got to meet the other students on the program. We had a day of orientation, then got our home stay placements and spent the first week going to orientation at American University's building here in Madrid. AU has 4 programs in Madrid so there are 34 of us total. I only knew one other student coming into the program because nearly everyone is a junior, but I've made some great friends. Pic = me with friends from my program.

Toledo:

At the end of orientation week, we took a group day trip to the city of Toledo (about an hour southwest of Madrid). Most gorgeous city ever. The background picture for this blog is actually a pic I took of Toledo. While there we saw the mosque, synagogue, cathedral, El Greco’s famous painting “The Burial of the Count of Orgaz”, a monastery, and some really great views of the city.

Classes Begin:

For the first few weeks I went to almost all of the classes (that are in Spanish) that are offered because if you know me, you know I’m cool like that. AU caps us at 17 credits a semester and my internship counts for credit, so I can’t take all of them, but besides the ones I’m enrolled in (Spain and the European Union, Spain Seminar: History and Culture, Spanish Literature and Film) I really like the “Security Issues in the Basque Country” – about the ETA terrorist group and nationalism in general in Spain – and wish I was a business student and didn’t need to take all my classes in Spanish to take the “Spain’s Soccer Obsession” course – the title kinda explains what that one’s about. Four hour classes are something to get used to, but luckily there’s a coffee machine downstairs and we get a small break halfway through.

Ávila and Salamanca:

Our first group overnight trip! The program I’m enrolled in here is called “Spain: The Iberian Experience” and my seminar class counts as two classes, so as a group we do some trips around the Iberian Peninsula where we learn about the place before and during our visit. We spent a weekend visiting Ávila and Salamanca (both northwest of Madrid). On Saturday we drove to Ávila and did a quick walking tour of the city. Ávila is the only city left in Spain with it's original wall still intact all the way around. While there we got to see St. Teresa's monastery, the cathedral, and we climbed a portion of the wall. Saturday evening we drove to Salamanca and, as it's a college town, enjoyed the busy night life. Sunday we got to see the main plaza, cathedral, and the old university (Salamanca is home to one of the 4 oldest and well-respected universities in Europe) and then enjoyed the nap time that was the bus ride back to Madrid.

Internship:

As part of my program I have the option of having an internship for credit instead of another class so after about 2 weeks, it was off to an interview I went. I got an internship with Fundación Cives where I work on Mondays and Wednesdays and go to conferences when there are ones to go to. My first day was amazing - I got to translate a memorandum to the European Council from Spanish to English that Cives was sending to ask the Council to denounce the new Spanish government's (The Popular Party won the last election) educational reform (which removes Citizenship courses and promotes more religious education). Since then, I've worked on creating a new Facebook page for them, a new logo, updated Twitter, translated more stuff, and I'm working on learning the coding for creating a new wikipedia page. I also went to my first conference at a think tank downtown which was a panel talking about religion in public schools.

Southern Spain (Andalucía):

Our second overnight trip was an extended weekend to the cities of Córdoba, Granada, and Sevilla. In Córdoba we visited the Mosque/Cathedral, which is really cool because it's a mosque built on top of the roman center of the city with a Cathedral built in the middle of the mosque by the catholics when they took over. In Granada we visited the Alhambra - the old palaces of the Moorish Kings who ruled Granada for a long time before the Catholic Kings (Isabella and Fernando) took over, the cathedral, a chapel, and went to see a Flamenco show done by a family of gypsies a little outside the city. Our last day was in Sevilla and the weather was beautiful. There, we visited the bull fighting ring and museum, the cathedral, and my friends and I tried bull meat tapas for lunch. We walked by one of the main plazas, which was gorgeous, and then headed back to Madrid. Pics = Granda mosque/cathedral and me and Leah in the bull fighting ring.

Getting Started

Getting Started

Yesterday and today have been absolutely gorgeous here in Madrid, and with the arrival of the sun, I’ve decided to wake up a bit and start a blog.

So as I type this I’m listening to some wonderful Spanish opera music – not my favorite, but no longer really annoying – as my host mother has quite the taste for opera or the top forty radio station; an interesting combination.

My host family here is pretty cool. I have a host mother (Immaculada) and a host sister (Almudena) who’s 24 and works full time so I see her every once and a while. My host mother has two other sons who are older and live with their own families – one of whom I’ve met and has baby who turns my host mother into a coo-ing machine. We live in an apartment like most people in Madrid do, which is quite nice and where I have my own room and bathroom. If you guys want to google-map the building you can type in: C/ Antonio Robles 4 - 2º C – 28034, Madrid. The building is right next to Hospital Ramon y Cajal.

Now that I’ve been here a while I have somewhat of a regular weekly routine down. Mondays and Wednesdays I work at my internship at Fundación Cives (an NGO that promotes citizenship and education); Tuesdays I have class “Spain and the European Union” 10-2 and “Spain Seminar: History and Culture” from 3-7; Thursdays I have my favorite class “Spanish Literature and Film” from 10-2; and Fridays I have the other session of “Spain Seminar: History and Culture” which is normally a “paseo” class – meaning we get lectured as we walk around parts of the city or visit a museum.

Some of the highlights of the paseos have been the Sorolla Museum (painter Sorolla’s house turned museum with a lot of his works - an example below) and the Egyptian Temple donated to the city of Madrid.