veeps

today in my spanish lengua class we learned about 15 different ways to greet someone, but i'm going to use my personal favorite:

hombre!

this does not mean man! but rather, why hello there!
i have a feeling i am the only person who thought that was funny. anyway, it is now our one month anniversary of arriving in spain and we are beginning our fourth week in madrid. we have finally been here for enough time that i feel like i can give you an accurate portrayal of our daily life:

monday through thursday we take class at our school, uc3m. i am taking lengua (spanish language), teatro (theatre - works, not acting), periodismo (journalism), and fundamentos del sistema juridico (fundamentals of the judicial system). the first three classes are all in spanish, but have only american students. these classes are fairly easy and are similar to spanish classes i have taken in high school and college. The latter of the four is my class with spaniards. there is one other person from the wash u program in the class with me, and we have to do group projects with the other people in our class. there is one main lecture class and one discussion class. the most bizarre part of all is during the lecture, students talk while the professor is talking, leave during the middle of class, and do not take notes - that is, if they even attend class. it is certainly going to be an experience. in addition, on wednesday nights, we have our 2-3 hour cultura y civilización class taught by the wash u faculty and attended by wash u students only. so far, work seems fairly light, but because it is all in spanish, we definitely feel like we are learning.

when we are not in class, we are either eating dinner with the rodriguez family or out exploring madrid. this weekend, our friends from another program were out of town, so lauren and i dubbed it our "cultural weekend" and did our best to explore madrid like real madrileñas. friday, we went to two museums: the thyssen, and the museo de jamón. the thyssen was the perfect amount of art - it is a private collection owned by the Thyssen-Bornemisza family that takes up three floors of a relatively small building. we were able to see paintings from caravaggio to to lichtenstein in just a few hours. the more famous works are housed at the prado and the reina sofía, but we found the thyssen to be much less overwhelming and still an incredible collection of art. later, we went to the aforementioned museo de jamón, which ended up being all lauren and i could have imagined and more. the museo de jamón is not literally a museum, but it is a three story store, bar, and restaurant. the walls are covered from floor to ceiling with whole jamones and there was one jamón iberico de bellota extra (refer to previous post for more info) that cost 90 euros per kilo. must be quite the jamón. lauren and i sat at the bar and each had a tomaca de jamón iberico (toasted bread covered with tomato-garlic puree and jamón) for 2 euro. needless to say, the museo de jamón did not disappoint and we will definitely be going back.

saturday, we took a 30 minute train to the bordering town of toledo, a beautiful little town up on a hill with famous cathedrals, mosques, and synagogues. first, we took a ride around the border of the city in a tiny antique train that showed us all of the main sights. then lauren and i wandered around for the rest of the day through the various cathedrals and jewish neighborhood. in the church of santa tome, we got to view the famous el greco painting, the burial of count orgaz, which i hadn't seen since art history in high school. the painting was massive, and below it was the actual tomb of the man depicted in the painting. slightly morbid, but at the same time, really amazing to see such a famous piece.

each night this weekend, we tried out different bars and clubs recommended to us by our host sister, gloria. as mentioned before, gloria is a former model and beauty queen, and thus, knows the coolest places to go out in madrid. she is what we would refer to in america as a "v.i.p." but in spain she is called a "vip" (pronounced veep). because gloria is a vip, she never pays to get into clubs here and knows the doorman basically everywhere. she told us that "necesitáis tener la actitud que no váis a pagar" (you need to have the attitude that you're not going to pay). ooook gloria. for the rest of us who aren't vips, we generally have the attitude that we will probably have to pay and by some stroke of luck, maybe we won't. but FEAR NOT. gloria has our back and each night we tried out a new place and got in for free! the best part of all was that every night we were probably the only americans at each place and got to see how the madrileños salen de la noche. at our favorite place of the weekend, a discoteca called vanila, the man was waiting at the door for us, let us in, and said, "two free drinks for the amigas americanas de gloria!" obviously, it was a great night. we can't wait to share all of our new places with our friends who were out of town.

to conclude, our cultural weekend was a success, and we are loving la vida española. next weekend we begin our travels out of madrid! in the next few weeks, we are going to cadíz, berlin, and london.

pues, nada. hasta luego!

madrid, te amo

vale.

we are finishing up our first week in madrid and it has been amazing. you all may have noticed that i keep saying 'we' instead of 'i'...this is because my roommate lauren and i are basically married and eat, sleep, and breathe every moment together...she even has to listen when my dad is rambling on ichat about how he lived on $10 a day in europe (in 1980). she has even asked me if she can write some of these posts (meanwhile, i offered to do a duo blog with her months ago but she was too cool for it...her loss).

ANYWAY, this week, we had orientation at our school, universidad carlos iii de madrid. while the name of the school says it is located in the city, do not be fooled - it is actually in getafe, a suburb area about 35 minutes away from our apartment. every day, we take a train and a bus to get there and back home. the school itself is fairly new and has nice facilities. while i am here, i will take 3 classes in the cursos de estudios hispánicos, which are classes in spanish for international students, and one class in grados, with other spaniards. tomorrow is my first day of real class and i am excited as well as nervous to see how i do speaking in and listening to spanish at school all day.

while we weren't at school, we spent a lot of time trying to get to know the neighborhoods around us in madrid. we have discovered sol, a cool area with bars, shops, and discotecas in the center of madrid; calle gran via and calle serrano, two of madrid's most renowned shopping districts; and la latina - every sunday there is a giant flea market here called el rastro. today lauren and i went here and felt like real madrileños. on my own, i have been exploring (running) up and down the paseo del prado, a path that runs between all of madrid's biggest and most famous museums and monuments.

this week we have also been getting to know our host family. our mom, maruja, will literally not stop feeding us, and no matter what it is, whether a chocolate "bombón" or a pear, she tells us that we MUST eat it because "es rica" (it's rich). last night, maruja told us that she weighs twice as much as she did at her wedding, and we're guessing it is because if something es rica, she has to eat it. on the other end of the spectrum are both her husband, pedro, and her daughter, gloria. pedro is a skinny man who eats a bowl of fruit for dinner while maruja stuffs us full of delicious tortilla española (an omelet filled with potatoes) or tostas de jamón (crispy toasted white bread and serrano ham). he and maruja have been married for 40 years and are still so in love. gloria is their beautiful daughter who used to be a model and was miss spain (nbd). she eats with us and tells us how she hates dessert and churros (of course she does, thus, the fact that she is 28 years old and still has her rockin' model bod). in summary, we have truly come to love them and are excited to keep learning about their family.

at night, we have been trying out different bars and clubs in various areas throughout madrid. the good news: there are plenty. the bad news: people don't start going out here until 2 in the morning! we are certainly adjusting to the different lifestyle. we have also learned that everyone we know at home has at least one friend here in madrid, so we've been meeting lots of great, nice people who are studying here this semester as well.

overall, we had a great first week here and are beyond thrilled to be back in madrid from granada. we hope to spend the next couple of weeks exploring everything and really getting to know this city that we're living in for the next 4 and a half months!