After almost a month (!!!) of being in Madrid, I'm finally beginning to feel like I've hit some kind of pattern, which is really nice. Classes began last week, so my schedule is finalized, I've begun signing up for dance classes and volunteer work, and I've still found time to run almost every day. At this point, the most stressful thing for me is the thought that we only have three months left...I absolutely love it here and wish I could stay for the year.
After a slight heart attack last Monday after realizing that I had confused class hours and therefore had to drop one of my classes, I've finally figured out my schedule. I'm now taking Spanish Economy, Educational Economics, and Journalism and Social Change with other Spanish students (in addition to my language and colloquial Spanish courses). The whole scheduling process was a complete nightmare, since Spanish students basically don't have to choose their own classes: majors don't allow for much flexibility or electives. So while a Spanish econ student would be taking all of hir (that's for you, Wes) classes with the same group of students and receive a pre-made schedule, we had to juggle several departments and class years and an incomprehensible website to create our schedules. But after figuring everything out, I'm really excited...all of my classes seem really interesting (and I no longer have to take classes until 10pm...woo!). Also, no class until 3pm Monday, 2:30 Thursday, and no class at all Fridays. If only I could pull that off at Wes.
My classes are obviously Spain and Europe centered, which is a perspective I've never really gotten before. We're learning about the financial crisis in Spanish Economics...the crisis has hit Spain much harder than it has the US. Unemployment is almost at 20%, a fact that my host mom is a constant reminder of: she got laid off from the job she had for 13 years once the crisis hit, and hasn't been able to find work for the past year and a half. Her unemployment wages end in April, so she's starting to get nervous (I'm one of her biggest sources of income right now). Anyway, it's an interesting time to take the class. I'm kind of trying to follow Spanish economics through some elEconomista metro reading, buuut...it's in Spanish, so it takes little while.
My Spanish has been improving a lot since I've gotten here though. I can now pretty much always get my point across in conversations, no matter with whom or what about (even if I'm not using perfect grammar). But just knowing that my Spanish is good enough to be able to figure out almost any kind of situation makes going around Madrid a lot less stressful. Sitting in class, I can understand about 90% of what the professors say (which isn't too bad, considering everyone else in the class is native Spanish speakers), and it takes less concentration just about every day. I'm nowhere near fluency, but I'm getting closer...
Abby H and I have also been tearing the city apart looking for every volunteering opportunity that involves small children, and may have been successful! It's pretty hard to find places where my schedule fits theirs, since I'm at Carlos III for a long time every day, but there have been a couple of places that have more flexible schedules. So hopefully that works out (I have an interview Monday)! It'll probably start in early-mid October if it does, so I still have some time. I've also signed up for "Ritmo Latino," a Saturday dance class! I was planning on taking flamenco, since it's so stereotypically Spanish, but the beginner classes look pretty slow...so salsa it is!
...and now to the good stuff. This weekend was absurdly fun and jam-packed, as usual. Thursday we went to Kapital, Madrid's 7-floor tall beast of a club. Each floor has a different type of music and type of dancing/lounging/drinking, and is slightly overwhelming. Somehow all the girls cajoled their ways into getting tickets that allowed for free entrance and a free drink, while the guys had to pay 15 Euros...but that seems to be pretty typical for Madrid. Not too bad for us. The first floor was techno, where they would occasionally let off huge plumes of steam and smoke that were slightly alarming, not to mention the man and woman dressed like strippers dancing on stage the whole time. The hip hop floor was fun, since it was basically what we dance to in the US, and the rest of the floors were more lounges for drinking than anything else. The gay floor was fun...it was completely green and white and served only mojitos. Yum!
We made up for our lack of culture Thursday night by going to see Bodas de Sangre (a ballet based on a work by Federico García Lorca) Friday night. It was incredible. There was an insane slow motion ballet fight scene that lasted about 5 minutes (and in real time would have lasted about 15 seconds) and involved some crazy flamenco moves. After Bodas de Sangre were 7 separate dances, some of which were traditional flamenco, but most seemed like they were from other countries...don't know enough about dance to really elaborate (one seemed Celtic?), but it was a lot of fun.
And Saturday night I managed to attend parties in both Spain and the US, a major triumph. First, in Spain it was Noche en Blanco, when museums and concerts hold free events from about 10pm-2am, and the metro stays open until 3am!! Usually the metro closes from 1:30-6am, meaning we always have to stay out until past 6am so we can take the metro home. ("Have to" may be a bit strong.) Closing at 3 allowed us to call it an early night.
We started at the Reina Sofia, Madrid's enormous modern art museum, where Jordana and I walked through the museum for the first time. It was completely packed (although it was about 1am), and the museum has some amazing works. Its most famous is Picasso's Guernica, which was in a room all of its own that was completely packed. I had only seen the Prado before the Reina Sofia; it's a lot more difficult to find time to go to museums that I had thought, so it was nice to have time to go museuming at night. Afterwards, Emma and Yulhee and I attempted to trek over to a concert at the Templo de Debod, an Egyptian temple that was plopped in the middle of a large park. After following faulty directions from other Americans and ending up fairly far from the temple, we decided it would be smarter to stop at every ice cream vendor we passed to ask directions for the next leg of our journey. Finally, we ended up at the Templo, which was kind of an unexpected sight to see in the middle of a European city. But there were tons of people around, botelloning and such (wine and fanta), which made the Egyptian temple it seem slightly more Spanish.
After taking the 3am metro home, I Skyped the lorise girls and thus got to attend Matt's bday lorise party! Maryann was a lovely tour guide, and I loved being able to see everyone (and their attire)...and feel like I was back at Wes again for a half an hour. And in a mere 3 months, 4 of them will be out here with me!
No comments:
Post a Comment