Dias 18-19

Admission tickets for El Prado and Thyssen

We decided to dedicate yesterday and today to adding some culture to our Spanish experience, and exploring some of the local museums in Madrid. Yesterday's journey was to the Thyssen Museum with our tour guide Leonor. We ended up straying from the group because after seeing the palace, our expectations were too high, and we were a bit disappointed. There were so many pieces of art (and a couple of Picasso's), that it's hard to imagine that it was all once a personal collection. Granted if I were part of the royal family I'd probably have a substantial amount of art in my house as well, but that's besides the point. 

After the museum, we had a movie and cuddle fest in Vrinda's room. At one point, 7 of us were laying in her twin size bed, I'm so surprised it didn't break. It was such a cozy and fun night.

Today's adventure finally lead us to El Prado, which was so huge. We saw a Rembrandt and a hole collection of Goya paintings. It was very impressive, I'm sure it's safe to say that we liked it better than Thyssen. Unfortunately, museums frown upon picture taking, so I have little to offer in the visual department. I guess that means anyone who's curious is just gonna have to go see it themselves (there's free student admission, so why not?).

Dia 17

The grand entrance.

After class we anticipated visiting the Prado museum, but ended up going home for lunch and taking a mini siesta (I swear, siestas are Europe's greatest gift to the people). Afterwards we trekked to El Palacio Real de Madrid. It. Was. Breath taking.

El Palacio Real de Madrid

I have to admit that after viewing the garden of the palace, I thought the palace itself would pale in comparison to La Alhambra. I couldn't have been more wrong. The interior was absolutely gorgeous, with elaborate carvings and paintings on nearly every ceiling. Not to mention the palace actually still had some of the original furniture and household objects which were so extravagant. I can't imagine a person owning all of those beautiful things for his/herself. It's almost surreal.

Dia 16

I took my first test today. I'm not exactly sure if I used the tenses the professor wanted, but at least my essay was somewhat witty (which is pretty hard considering I'm still trying to master the Spanish language). It wasn't exactly my most eventful day. I attempted to go shopping, but knowing my awful luck, I didn't find anything. Damn my height that causes me to not be able to fit in anything. I will buy at least one cute item of clothing before I leave Spain.

I intended to spend the night in, but we ended up venturing off to a new discoteca. No wonder everyone is so skinny here, all they do is dance.

Dias 13-15

This weekend was our first weekend out of Madrid. On Friday we left with the school to go to Grenada, and while we were initially underwhelmed, and exhausted from the uncomfortable 6 hour bus ride, we were soon enchanted by the city's beauty.

Our hotel was surprisingly cute with a rooftop pool and a bidet in each room. I was a little curious to try it out, but wasn't sure how awkward it might feel. The tub on the other hand was HUGE. Two people could have easily fit in there, but I never got to take advantage of it :[

Friday night we went to a gypsy Flamenco show up in the mountains. It's kind of exciting to say that my first Flamenco experience was an authentic one, in the motherland. It was a really intimate environment, and towards the end of the performance Leonor, our tour guide, surprised us and got on stage. Where did that come from?! She was so good, I'm a bit jealous. 

Saturday morning we went to al Corral del Carbon and la Capilla real. As in the other parts of Spain that we've visited, the churches and museums were beautiful. I'm proud that i finally bought some souvenirs (although I still need keychains and postcards). Later on, we visited la playa de Motril, our first Spanish beach. I think my expectations were a little too high, although the water was beautifully blue. I just didn't anticipate the high volume of rocks that were mixed with the sand or the extreme waves and rip tides. Saturday night, our last night in Grenada, we trekked back up the mountain to a discoteca that had a patio with a beautiful view of La Alhambra. Drinks were really cheap, but it had been a long day, so I had one and then called it a nap. I'm still getting over the fact that the taxi ride to the club was only 4.75 Euros, which ended up being 1 Euro per person because we split it. How was it so cheap?!

Sunday morning we headed to La Alhambra, which was magnificent. The garden was like nothing I've ever seen before. It had a beautiful view and was so well maintained and clean. Not to mention the fact that it was ginormous. We spent some time in the palace, which I don't have words to describe. Although it was amazing, I can't imagine anyone having ever lived there. All the stones and marble are gorgeous, but so cold and impersonal. 

After Alhambra we began our 6 hour journey home, only to have our bus break down and leave us stranded in the middle of a desert like area. It was an interesting experience. Then to top it off, the guy who was sitting in front of Vrenda and I was so obnoxious. First, he had his chair reclined all the way back so we had barely any space. I mean, I have short legs, but I still need some space. Then, he refused to close the curtain on the window, even though the sun was in everyone's eyes. I asked, rather politely I may add, and then an older woman asked about an hour later, and he was just really rude. We should have kicked his chair and sang obnoxiously for the rest of the ride to be irritating, but we're just good people, so we didn't.

Day 12

Today we went to Mulafest, Madrid's own urban festival, after lunch. We got there later than we anticipated, but I'm glad we were able to go before it ended. At the Mulafest there was a huge bike and car show, as well as a tattoo convention. We were all contemplating getting tattoos, but in the end were too indecisive about it (that's what happens when you have 11 girls). After we left the tattoo convention we ventured off to karaoke, which I was surprised that I did sober. As soon as we started singing, you could see the crowd slowly begin to disperse. Either they didn't like that we were singing in English (although other people were), or our voices were just too intimidating for them. Personally, I'd vote for the latter.

We also saw a mini play about Whitney Houston, and although at times we struggled to understand what was being said, and are laughs were often delayed from everyone else's, I enjoyed it. The actors emphasized their actions enough that the concept was understood, despite the anticipated language barrier. Afterwards we viewed an interpretive dance which, although was still in its early stages, was quite expressive.

There was also a BMX bike show with ramps and a bunch of people doing tricks and flips. I swear, Rez is right when he says I'm a boring mom. As I was watching, I kept having mini heart attacks after every flip, jump, and movement. There were a couple stumbles, but no serious injuries.

Throughout the festival, there was a huge appreciation for graffiti. Earlier in the day, the walls of the festival were completely white, but by the closing, they were immersed in spray paint and various sayings/art. It was quite an amazing site. Tomorrow the walls will be painted white, and the process will begin again.

Day 11

Ron Jr.

Today was trip number 2 to the pool. I hope we find a cheaper location to swim because even though I'm happy that I'm getting (slightly) tanner, I need to save my money for our weekend excursions. Not to mention the fact that alcohol becomes an added expense when you take a group of almost, but not yet 21 year old New Yorkers and place them in a European country.

When we got back to the residence we found a little lizard just chilling in the bathroom, which was very convenient because earlier that night Ron had told us that he's petrified of lizards. So we ended up trapping it in a cup (relax PETA, we set it free afterwards), and setting it on his desk so he'd find it when we walked in. His reaction was priceless, too bad we couldn't keep Ron Jr.

Day 10

Today was Pepe's last night in the residence. Apparently he goes home to a beautiful house on the coast of Northern Africa. I haven't seen pictures, but from what I've been told, it sounds beautiful. We were going to go out to the Sand Bar, but there were too many people and we didn't feel like waiting, so we decided to just buy some Sangria and head back to the house.

The house is officially going to be void of native influence, which kind of makes me sad because it was more of an experience to be in a situation that (kind of) forced us to speak Spanish. We technically spoke English most of the time, but now it's probable that we won't speak any Spanish at all.

As a tribute to my coworker who requested I bring her home Spanish men, I asked Pepe and his friend to pose for a picture in her honor. Hopefully this will suffice because I'm afraid Spanish men (or any men for that matter) are too large to fit in my suitcase.

Day 9

My over-flowing laundry bin

Today after class we went to the pool on campus. Unfortunately we had to pay to get in, but it was refreshing to jump into some cold water, especially with the 90 something degree weather that is so common here. I swear, it needs to rain some time.

I swam about a lap and a half, which makes me pretty proud, considering I’m a very spastic swimmer. I didn’t take any pictures, but I did get a slight pinkness added to my skin, which I hope turns to tan rather than sunburn. Who knows, maybe this will be my first summer with a tan that is actually noticeable.

We’re supposed to be going out, but I’m not sure where. Elena made the plans. I don’t even know what I’m going to wear because our laundry day isn’t until tomorrow, and I barely have any good clothes left. 

Day 8

I’ve officially been here a week. We began our morning by sleeping in until nearly 3. After taking our sweet time to get ready, we made our way to Parque del Buen Retiro. It was like a mini Central Park, row boats included.

By accident we found the Reina Sophia museum, which had some pretty bizarre and interesting exhibits. I’m not quite sure how I felt about the video of the man mutilating the woman’s body, but I’m no art critic, so I’ll leave that for someone else to comment on.

 

Tonight was the first night that EVERYONE stayed in. After only a week, we’re already starting to feel like a little family. We all seem to get along so well, and are super comfortable around each other. I never had any form of dorming experience, so I didn’t know what it felt like to have a roommate, yet alone to live with a bunch of other students. It’s kind of nice

Day 7

This morning we woke up bright and early and ventured to the school to meet the others for our day trip to Toledo. We were the last ones to get there (and we weren’t even late), so I ended up sitting next to this guy from Milwaukee named Mike. He was pretty nice. Thank God we held a decent conversation because the bus ride took forever (although I should have slept, because I was exhausted).

 

I was not mentally prepared for Leonor, our tour guide, to be so passionate about the sites she was taking us to. She really liked to speak and pack in as many locations as possible. I suppose this is a good thing, but it was very hot, and she doesn’t know how to speak slowly in Spanish so us non-Natives (nearly everyone there) can understand).

During our lunch break we found this little restaurant and ended up ordering like 3 bottles of wine. After that we really didn’t want to return to the group, but luckily our day was almost over.

Later on tonight I had my first (hopefully last) emotional break down of the trip. We were booking our trip to Ibiza, and I was really uncertain about whether to do it, because Clubbing isn’t exactly in my comfort zone. I’d never even been to a club before this trip. I think that coupled with the price of the trip and the delayed realization that I’m in Madrid was overwhelming.

Up until this point, I hadn’t really processed the fact that I was in a foreign country with a completely different native tongue and (almost) complete strangers. I ended up calling Rez with the 10 free minutes that I had on my texting app and as soon as I heard his voice I couldn’t hold the tears in. It was so nice to hear a familiar voice, especially one belonging to someone that means so much to me.

After speaking with him, I finally mustered up the cajones to book my flight, and resolved that I needed to go out and celebrate. We ended up going to Pacha. From the general consensus, it was similar to clubs in New York. But it was by far the craziest place that I’ve went thus far in this trip. We ended up having to leave because some of the guys were being creeps and too aggressive, but we did get a few good hours out of it. 

Day 6

Second day of class, nothing too difficult  or interesting. Just two hours of class, then an attempted shopping trip. I finally got a phone today. It’s just a crappy little flip phone, but at least it’s something. We

We ended up spending the night with Javier and Pepe and going to some club about 20 minutes from the residence. It was nice, but we wanted to leave early so we can wake up tomorrow and ended up getting there 15 minutes before the club even opened. Oops.

Once we got inside it was a pretty laid back place. We were socializing for awhile until they finally opened up the dance floor downstairs. Again, we were some of the first people there, but around 2 o’clock (apparently the unofficial starting time of all parties around here) more people started arriving and the party picked up.

There was this couple that was dancing all cute and making out every two seconds. I have to admit, I was a tad bit jealous. I wish Rez was here. We haven’t been able to Skype or talk on the phone yet, but I’ve downloaded this app on my iPod so we’ve been texting every day.

 

Day 5

Today was our first day of class. I apparently placed intermediate (not too shabby), and am completely glad that I opted to take only one class. Consequently, I only have class from 9-11 instead of from 9-2. I’d much rather have time free so that I can explore the city and enjoy my summer.

After class I ended up losing track of the other people who finish class at 11 so I decided I would wait around for the 1 o’clock people and then go home with them. Initially I was going to explore the campus, but it was too hot and I didn’t know where to go. I found the other Michelle and ended up having lunch with her until it was time to find  the others.

Once we got back to the house, we had lunch then went on a venture to find el Parque del Oeste. It had beautiful views of the city, and was a little calm oasis away from the city. We walked around for quite awhile, and tried to visit the palace of the royal family, but it was already closed for the night.

Some of us decided to go out for the night, but I chose to stay in again, simply because I knew we have to wake up early tomorrow. Eleni, Elena, Graziella and I infiltrated Ron’s room and had a mini bonding session to get to know each other a little better. It was a simple, but relaxing night. 

Day 4

Today we took our placement test, and I completely forgot all the grammar rules. I have no idea whether I’ll be placed in intermediate or beginner because my vocabulary is at a higher level than my grammar. Que sera sera I guess.

In honor of the 4^th of July we went out to some place for beers, and a bucket of 5 beers was only 3 euros, so we got about 6 of them. Afterwards a bunch of people went to this club event called Zombie which has DJ’s from Ibiza come play and is apparently really intense and crazy, but after my recent hangover experience, I opted for a night in with some of my other housemates.

We ended up drinking some Ron Blanco that Ron bought (pun intended) and played a few rounds of Kings. Let me say this, if you don’t know the rules, this game is not fair! But I caught on pretty fast, so all went well. We got yelled at for being too loud, but we stayed up anyway.

It was nice to spend a night in after having gone out so much.

Day 3

Lack of sleep + Jet Lag + Lack of food  = Awful

Today we had a day trip to El Escoral, a city about an hour from Madrid by train. I knew from when I woke up that it was going to be an awful day. I barely ate breakfast because I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep it down. Sure enough I was right. The little croissant that I ate creeped its way back up my throat in the form of vomit. ON. THE. TRAIN. Great second impression in front of my professor.

I got exactly 10 minutes of sleep last night, and the whole day trip, all I wanted to do was sleep. We had a hike to go to this palace/museum, and although it was beautiful, I was not in the right state to be out of bed.

I was nauseous all day, and it turned out that the bathrooms in the palace/museum were only located at  the entrance and exit. Now the palace was GORGEOUS, but it is an understatement to say that I was more than rushing to get out of there. At one point I just left the group and made my way to the end of the route.

I tried to get back to everyone, but it was ridiculously difficult, and I ended up walking in circles. In the end I found the professor’s friend (Pedro?) and we waited for the rest of the class at the end.

I’m a bit upset that the professor decided to take everyone out to eat on a day where I felt so miserable because he paid, and let everyone get whatever they wanted. Everyone that is, except me. He told me I was on “detention” (jokingly of course), and only let me eat what he selected.

After eating I felt better, and we had cake for Graziella’s birthday. At least they gave me a slice of that!

Day 2

Queens College Study Abroad Students 2012

Today I slept in to recuperate from our long flight and our late night out. When we awoke, most of the other students had arrived. It was nice to have more English speaking people around, but at the same time I missed having the natives here. Two guys will be staying for a couple more weeks, so hopefully we can converse with them for practice and they can show us all the fun places to go.

We met our professor, and he reminds me of my AP Calculus teacher from high school so much! It’s something about their appearance and overall demeanor. He took us to go get phones, but the store didn’t have what we needed in stock, so we shall be without telecommunication (not even sure if that is the correct word for this situation, but whatever).

Las Capiones Europa

We were supposed to meet the guys (aka the “natives”) to go to the parade in celebration of Spain winning the cup, but we were running too late and had no way to contact them so we ended up venturing on our own to the parade. I got a pretty good video of Spain’s futbol team passing by on a bus considering the size of the crowd was similar to that of the stadium yesterday.

After the parade we came back to the residence, where we found the guys sitting in the living room watching tv. We joined and they mocked how we traveled such a long distance only to sit and watch MTV.

"The guys"

We ended up going with them to this hookah (or shisha) bar where for 7 euros each we got 2 shishas, 2 bottles of liquor, and a bunch of soda for drink mixing purposes. It was insane.

Apparently the Metro doesn’t work at night, so you have to either take a cab (expensive!) or walk home. I guess that keeps their transit system from being destroyed by homeless and drunkards? Anyway, on our way we passed by a hooker street. Correction, transvestite hooker street. What an interesting site.

We got back to the residence around 430 in the morning, but we didn’t sleep because Sergio had to leave at 6 for his flight back to the Canary Islands. Needless to say tomorrow (which is actually today) is going to be interesting.

Day 1

Today is my first day in Spain. Aside from being extremely jet lagged, I was in a complete culture shock when I got off the plane and realized that I’m in a completely new country (for the first time), and I will seriously need to work on my Spanish skills if I hope to survive.

It took Michelle and I forever to find the Metro once we got off the plane because it turned out to be 3 terminals away. Spain has a lot of stairs! And their cell phones work on the train. New York needs to step up their game.

Surprisingly we didn’t get lost on the train, but we were in for a surprise once we arrived at our destination. There was no indication of which floor (out of 7) would be our residence hall. We tried using the pay phone on the corner to call our professor, Jose, but could not figure out how it worked. Eventually Michelle asked someone in a bus stop to use their cell phone. Surprise number 2? Jose’s phone was not working.

Our Living Room

So we stood outside of the building until someone came out and we asked them if they knew which bell we needed to ring. The first guy who came out was completely oblivious, with dreads and a blunt in his mouth. But the second guy told us we needed to go to the sixth floor.

My Side of the Room

The elevator seemed like an antique, it’s absolutely beautiful. However, Michelle and I had all of our luggage, so as we boarded the elevator, we could hear it creaking as it continued to ascend. Upon entering our residence, we were greeted by a group of native students, which only further intimidated us because we felt completely out of place.

Our Kitchen

Luckily, two of our classmates had arrived the previous day and had established friendship with the natives, so we accompanied them to the stadium to watch the Euro cup finals. There were so many people there and I could barely see because I’m so short, but it was a very interesting experience, especially considering I’m not an avid soccer (or futbol) fan. Spain won, and chaos ensued. People exited the stadium en masse and a spontaneous parade broke out.

  

                                        

Afterwards we found this cute outdoor restaurant and I had my first authentic Spanish meal. It was delicious, but by this point I was completely exhausted. Finding my bed was an amazing feat.