Art of Darkness

This week has been another great one!

Yesterday, Rachel and I and some other people got Indian food!  It was great!  There was no ham in it at all!  Afterwards we took our sorry selves to the library of this art society and did our homework!  (I am writing rom there right now, as my internet is on the fritz)  It is not all fun and games here.  Except my hw was pretty ridiculous.  My language class is geared toward preschoolers, and so my ‘essay’ was to write about what I would do if I were invisible.  My answer included eating chocolate croissants, robbing a bank, tripping strangers, and stealing the homework of my enemies!   I would be a malicious Invisible Man. After hw time, we went up onto the terrace. 

The view of Madrid is spectacular! And how could we resist climbing something for a view! 

Friday night we went to our fave place, Casa de Cerveza, which was free!! (for me, because I had a coupon)  We attracted much attention by defiantly speaking English against the wishes of the stern ladybouncer.  Some Swedes and a kid from some state no one’s ever heard of joined our group.  The Swedes spoke better English (and Spanish and Swedish and God knows what else) than me.  The unfortunate truth is that I can now no longer speak English and I certainly can’t speak Spanish, soon I will have to resort back to my mime days:

I sent a post card to my mother describing the Thrown Room (Throne Room) of the Royal Palace.  On a related note, Rachel and I learned our first Spanish joke!  I tried to tell it to my madre, but she insisted that I was talking about tennis (really the joke is about Darth Vader).  Ok so here is the joke, it doesn’t translate well, or at all:  What does Darth Vader keep in his freezer?  Helado oscuro/el lado oscuro (ie. Dark chocolate ice cream, which is a homophone for the dark side).  Haha!

Speaking of the dark side, last night I must have accidentally turned the light for the kitchen on when I turned the hall light off.  Unfortunately the kitchen light bulb burned out.  This morning when I went to eat my breakfast I hit the switch and my madre slapped it right off again and yelled at me about something.  But, by the light of a desk lamp I saw that the ceiling was black and thought I started a fire on the ceiling! (the words bombillo(light bulb) and bombero(fireman) are quite similar)    The severity of a ceiling fire made sense with the amount of scolding that was happening.  I couldn’t imagine how I’d slept through a fire!  After a close study though, I realized that the ceiling was just dirty and not fire stained.  However, I am predicting an icy next few days between the Señora and myself.

On a happier note, Rachel and I and others went to a street fair, ate delish Mexican food for lunch, went to the Reina Sophia and topped it all off with frozen yogurt!  A splendid day!  Except that some parts of the Reina Sophia, a modern art museum housing lots of Picasso and Dali, were terrifying.   We saw Guernica, a piece by Picasso about the Spanish Civil War, and it was HUGE! Actually, the entire museum was huge, I will have to back many more times, although Rachel and I did decide we were more Prado people.

Here are Rachel and I in front of a seeming innocuous yet random piece of art.  After this picture was taken, the whole thing shook REALLY violently and I had to scramble out of the way, I almost died of heart failure.  However, most of the art was not violent or terrifying. 

Here we are as performance art. (Actually we are just waiting for the rest of the group)

We went out with the Swedes again last night for Mojitos, which was fun.  And today we went to El Rastro, an open-air market that is probably as big as my hometown.  There was so much stuff there.  Unfortunately I only have 5 Euros to last me until Tuesday so I did not buy anything.  Lunch was olives, bread, cheese, and CARAMELS from a Argentina Expo!!  YUM!

And here is a continuation of the list:

19.  Meals are much later here; this has become such a part of daily life that I don’t even notice it anymore.  Lunch is at about 2 and dinner is around 9 or 10.

20. TV shows are stranger (maybe this is because I can’t usually understand them.  Here are a few examples

a. Pasapalabra!  A crazy game show/ amalgamation of many games shows!  No one really understands it.  Rachel did get her first answer right though!! 

b. Los Clonos – A one man SNL.  This one man dressed up as everyone and imitates them.  I don’t think it is very funny, but the name is.

c. Also there is some obsession here with this woman Belen Esteban.  I think she was dating a bull fighter, had a kid and is now single.  Some (mostly her) are clamoring for her to be the next presidente.  She looks a bit like ET

21. The Spanish spoken here has a lisp built into it!  Cs and Zs and sometimes Ss are more like THs.  This is thilly! 

22. There are THE SCARIEST street performers here.  They startle me every time.  Here is the least scary, yet the most famous street performer we have found, Fat Spiderman.

Hasta la Vista,

Hilary

The Ruffians go to the Races...and the Prado

A lot of the people on our program went on a trip to a city called Salamanca this weekend, but Hilary and I decided to stay home and enjoy Madrid along with a bunch of our friends. I went to the Prado art museum for the first time- on Friday and again on Sunday. It is INCREDIBLE.

front entrance

I know surprisingly little about art, have never studied it, and usually am not very good at appreciating it, but I was so impressed by the Prado. I honestly can't wait to go back again. On Friday, we only had enough time/energy to explore the first floor (planta baja- because of course in Spain the second floor is actually called Floor 1 and the bottom floor is Floor 0...) Spanish painters are very cool. My two favorite things from the planta baja are:
1. A sculpture of a veiled woman (Isabel II). I found this picture online because photography was not allowed in the museum, but I'm not sure if it does it justice. The veil and all of her facial features are carved out of stone. incredible. I have no idea how he made it look layered/like the veil is covering her face like that.

2. Goya. I knew very little about Goya going into the museum, but the Goya rooms were seriously impressive. The first paintings of his were fairly typical of the time period and, although beautiful, didn't particularly stand out to me, but then we walked into an entire room of his "Pinturas Negras" (dark paintings)...so awesome, and such a dramatic contrast. Goya had a very dark, insane side and was able to express it beautifully, which was incredible to me. Example, "Saturno devorando a su hijo"- Saturn Eating his Son:

This might just look a little silly out of context, but it's pretty incredible and scary in person.

We went back to the Prado on Sunday because a special exhibit called Turner and the Masters ("Turner y los Maestros") was closing that day and we wanted to see it. It was about how this guy Turner (probably a famous artist that I don't know anything about) copied the styles of all these other famous artists to learn how to be a good painter. I didn't like it very much because it just showed the master's painting side-by-side with Turner's copy of it, and you'd be like: "Well yeah, the master's painting is so much better than the copycat's," which seemed redundant. It was worth going to because the art was good, but not the best exhibit.

On Saturday, between Prado excursions, a bunch of us ate lunch at the Mercado de San Miguel, which is a very cool indoor market with all kinds of prepared foods. We had Mexican food, a very exciting change. It was PACKED inside:



No space to walk and explore the different types of food, but definitely worth it because the Mexican was delicious. We got riquísimo cake for dessert. I had something called panda bear cake ("torta del oso panda") that was amazing and looked like this:

We ended our weekend late Sunday afternoon with la Vuelta a España, the Spanish version of the Tour de France. The race ended right in the middle of Madrid, so we went to see it. Watching cyclists zoom around the streets of Madrid a bunch of times is actually really fun.
 

Friday and Saturday night, between all of these adventures, we had fairly low-key nights at various bars after Staqui's crazy birthday night/car chase escapade on Thursday (see Hilary's previous blog entry). On Saturday we discovered a place that charged American girls 5 euro for an open bar (aka all-you-can-drink sangria). Very good deal. The bouncer, a less than threatening middle-aged woman, berated us when we spoke in English because she said she hates it when foreigners come into her bar and don't speak Spanish, but besides that we had a good time.

My classes have been going well this week, although I still don't understand what many of the assignments are because the syllabuses are much much less specific than American ones. My favorite class so far has been my Spanish language class. After about four class periods it already has been more useful than any other Spanish class I've ever taken. We've been focusing on conversational Spanish and correcting the common mistakes we make over and over so we sound less ridiculous when we speak and can have a normal conversation without constantly second-guessing ourselves. I am very appreciative of this. Today we started going over the subjunctive tense, which is a nightmare for most (if not all?) American Spanish-language students. Our teacher made us put our pens down and think about verb tenses spacially...her explanation actually made a lot of sense. I'm excited to finally learn how to use the subjunctive tense after being confused by it every year in high school and feeling proud of myself at Vassar for throwing the occasional "sea" into my papers (probably incorrectly).

Host family is still going well too. Although last night at dinner my host mom asked me if I would like some cheese, and, thinking she had asked me if I like cheese, I answered, "Sí, sí!" very energetically. She brought out a whole plate of cut-up cheese for me. I obviously had to eat some of it, so I ate 4 pieces, but no one else was eating it. Then today for dinner she brought out the rest of the cheese (same plate, plastic wrapped) and set it in front of me again. I ate a few more pieces, but I seriously hope I do not have to finish all of that cheese by myself. Language miscommunications are still a very common part of my day.

Hasta la vista,

Raquel

Putas and Plumas

This, our second week of classes, was much fun and culminated in Stacy’s birthday last night.  (Actually, we call her Staky or possibly Staqui as her host mom couldn’t say Stacy).  Classes were regular, nothing out of the ordinary happened.  I did learn how to ask for things at a restaurant, which is helpful.  One day, we drank Sangria in between our classes which was lots o’ fun.  They have these cups here that are called minis but this title is oxymoronic.  Minis are gigantic. 

At home I was again scolded, this time for leaving two bobby pins in the pocket of my pants.  This fam situation is not getting less awk as I had hoped.  Hmm Also, the warm milk smells pretty rank, I do not want to eat/drink it.  I think I will just pour it down the sink in secret increments. But on a brighter note, I now eat chocolate cookies for breakfast!  This is odd, but delicious, I wonder if it is usual here.

Last night, Thursday, we went out for Staky’s bday!  It was fun and eventful and so looonng.  The metros close at 1:30 and open at 6, and so we stayed out until the metros opened again because the night busses are impossible to navigate (impeccable logic at work there). 

Here are some highlights:

We had dinner on an awesome roof terrace

We ate cake in a random plaza

It was bird themed as so Rachel wore a peacock dress and I wore feathers in my hair! So avian!

Scary lightning!

See the asterisk below for our brush with the law. (not really do not get worried)

And finally chocolate con churros

I was a great bday party, but unfortunately after getting home at 6, Felicia and I had to be at the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) at 10.  We took a pretty AMAZING tour of the palace, it was so intricately decorated, but unfortunately I was not allowed to take any pics inside. But here is the outside:

After this we went to an awesome market, Retiro (a very superb park), 1^st lunch (not satisfying) and 2^nd lunch (very satisfying! Felicia and I went to THE FANCIEST MCDONALDS IN THE WORLD) it is really impressive!  There are marble columns and the ceiling is gold! Later we are going out for a low-key night hopefully with no car chases or thing of that nature.

And back by popular demand, a continuation to the orderless list:

12. All of the deodorant here is the roll on kind. I hope this works as well as the other kind or I will be a very smelly girl this semester.

13. There are not actually street signs here…there are usually plaques on the corner of the buildings, but not always.

15. The sidewalks are sometimes not sidewalks at all, but secret streets. 

*For example (n.b. this might be inappropriate): Last night Felicia, Stacy and I (unfortunately Rachel was wandering around Madrid at this point and was not there to witness this bizarre event) were walking on a pedestrian street nicknamed Calle Puta (whore street) when we were caught unaware in the middle of a low speed police chase.  Calle Puta is a necessary evil to get to chocolate con churros (another necessary evil). At first I didn’t know we were in a police chase, I was used to small European cars driving at me on sidewalks.  However, there were like ten toy-sized police cars following this other one.  The whores and we were dodging the cops and this crazy culprit but everyone was only going 10mph because the cars were super tiny.  It turned into a foot race and amazingly enough the two criminal guys got away.  But on the brighter side our night ended with 5 am churros!

16. They have We Buy Gold people here too!  Except they wear police-like vests and accost the people on the street. 

17. I hope this is not the case for America… but girls here wear THE MOST RIDICULOUS PANTS I’VE EVER SEEN.  They are like a mix between clown pants, MC Hammer pants, and Aladdin pants.  Here is Rachel modeling a very modest example…usually the crotch is down by the ankles. ( I do not know what Heather is doing/wearing in this picture....but it is very funny)

Here is a more accurate example:

18. The movie theaters are super fancy and have assigned seats- there are ushers and every thing.  Felicia and I went to see Lope again we did not understand it any better but It was still epic.

Ok I am off to meet people in Sol for a hopefully less ridiculous night!

Hasta la vista,

Hilary

Swords and Stoners

HOLA, this Saturday we went on  a day trip to Toledo with everyone else from our program. Toledo is gorgeous:

(view of the whole city)

And, believe it or not, it has a cathedral that we toured. This cathedral was actually the first to be built in Spain and is absolutely beautiful, but we are all slightly desensitized to cathedrals after seeing so many of them.

Toledo is famous for its swords and metalworks, and also for marzipan, which we bought from a cloistered nun in a tiny window (with the help of our monitor Ines since we were too shocked by the little window and confused by the situation to speak coherent Spanish...but what else is new). I've only ever had the almond paste version of marzipan that comes on cakes, but this was solid marzipan in little doughy candies. It was SO sweet that it made me a little nautious. The most enjoyable part of Toledo was probably its escalators, which were unheard of in Santiago.

Hilary enjoying the escalators, with Lope forever lurking in the background

Toledo is also cool because all of the streets are cobblestone and VERY narrow. Whenever a car was coming, someone would yell "COCHE" and we all had to stop walking and press ourselves against the buildings to let it pass. There was one close call with a truck.

We also visited a mosque and some synagogues/a Jewish museum, since Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived harmoniously in Toledo hundreds of years ago (pre-Inquisition...when the mosque and synagogues were converted into churches). The painter El Greco lived in Toledo, so we saw some of his most famous paintings as well. Photography was unfortunately not permitted.

After returning to Madrid and taking a short nap, we went out to La Noche en Blanco, which is a huge all-night party in the streets of Madrid. The museums have certain exhibits open for free, but it was so crowded that we didn't even attempt to go near them. All of the major streets looked like this:

We spent most of the night being overwhelmed and unsure of where we should go, but we had a fun time and it was really cool to see, even though we missed out on many of the Noche en Blanco exhibits/activities. We did, however, stop by the giant Twister board.

After having a pretty quiet Sunday that included delicious ice cream, we went back to classes today. I am taking the following five classes:

-Spanish language class with other Americans where we learn how to sound less like awkward foreigners and how to politely decline or accept invitations to get coffee

-History of Spain, also with fellow Americans as part of the international students program

-Education of the Citizen and Human Rights, a mini-course that ends in late October.

-The Theory of the Image, a media studies first-year class (with Spanish students) that sounded fun to try. Most of our grade is based on a creative project entitled "My World in Images" that has a written, research-based component too. This should be interesting.

-Prehistory and Ancient History. I have not actually gone to this class at all yet because last week I was planning on taking a different class, but there were only 7 students, I was the only American, and the professor thought my name was Miguel because I can't pronounce Raquel properly, so that was too intimidating and I switched to this new one. I'm hoping it is a better fit because we are now registered for classes and I'm not allowed to change my schedule anymore...haha.

In more exciting news, Hilary and I have been planning the trips we want to go on while we are here! The plane tickets to other nearby countries are incredibly cheap- it's awesome. Current schedule:

-PARIS, October 7-11 to visit Greg!
-MOROCCO, October 22-24 (my birthday!)- hopefully we can see our friend Lauren while we're there!
-LONDON, November 18-21- the weekend the next Harry Potter movie comes out!!!!

My host family continues to baffle me, but I really like them and they are so nice to me. Today after dinner (which was a weird tomato soup that they told me to eat with a fork and a whole plate of fish and mussels) I helped my host mom research marijuana plants after we watched a news story about some kids getting arrested for possession. On the news the kids had stuffed an entire van full of marijuana leaves. I am not exaggerating. The leaves were up past the windows of the car. My host mom wanted to know what marijuana plants look like because, as she explained, someone might give her one as a present and she would think it's just a pretty plant without knowing that it was an illegal drug. So just in case this happened, she wanted to be familiar with what it looks like. I helped her find pictures on google. She thought it was a really pretty plant, especially when it has flowers. Meanwhile, the grandmother kept asking (in Spanish of course), "What is so special about this plant?" and my host mom would answer, "It's a drug!" Then 30 seconds later the grandmother would ask again, "So what is so special about this plant?" My host mom was getting very annoyed with her. Que loco.

Hasta la vista,

Raquel

Cold Showers and Warm Milk

The first week of classes has finished!

(Back to school picture)

 My schedule wound up looking like this:
-Siglo de Oro (Golden Ages) a literature class starting in the Renaissance - The professor is very cute and the readings are interesting so far
-Composition and Intermediate Spanish - a ridiculous but required class in which I am learning how to ask Spanish people to drink coffee with me.
-Sociology -This is also pretty easy although it is an actual course that Spanish students take.  I did not know the sheer amount of textbooks that are American.  The one we are using was translated from English to Spanish by my professor.  In some classes I even have readings in English because they are much more available/better.
-Art History-Half of my classes are in a classroom and the other half are at museums.  It will be awesome to go to all of the fab museums here (Reina Sofia, Prado, etc)

(La biblioteca, cool, but not as awesome as Vassar's)

Last night we all went out to celebrate the end of classes (there are practically no classes on Fridays in Spain (best idea ever)).  Los monitores took us to dinner and such as it was the last night of our Madrid orientation.  We went to lots of bars and drank lots of Sangria.  It is so delicious.

I randomly saw a girl that I went to high school with in the bathroom of a sports bar.  It was so bizarre.  Before bed, we went out for chocolate con churros, it was incredible.And after sleeping very late, Rachel and I (and some other people) tried to find historical literary places (ie Lorca's house, where Cervantes was buried, and Lope de Vega's house) but they were all closed.  

This is unrelated but I would like to dedicate some space in this blog post to the differences I have observed between Spain and the US and between my home NJ home and my Spain home. An orderless list:

1. There seem to be very few clothes dryers here, most of the clothing is dried on a line outside
2. The milk here is shelf stable.  It is so bizarre and pretty gross to eat Corn Flakes with warm milk, but that is my brekkie every morning
3. PDA (public displays of affection) is OUT OF CONTROL!!!  People of all ages at all times of day make out EVERYWHERE!!  It is shocking and pretty grotesque, but I think I am becoming immune.
4. Time is much more elastic here; being on-time equals being very early.
5. People here are generally more direct.  If they don't want you to do something, they tell you.  For example: yesterday I was severely scolded for bringing a washcloth to the gym.
6. Many more people here smoke in public and in bars and restaurants and such, smoking is allowed.
7.  This is specific to my house here, but my madre turns off the hot water at night and if i get up too early I have to take a cold shower (and then eat corn flakes with warm milk).
8. Also specific to my house here.  I have to eat my breakfast in the kitchen on the washing machine.  Yes, it is so odd, and when the washing machine is on my brekkie rattles around.
9. Ham is everywhere!  It is on everything!
10. Veggies are a bit scarce. My madre keeps telling me that I don't like vegetables, I cannot convince her that I do.
11. Spanish people stand quite close when they are talking, the amount of personal space is much smaller here.
There are many more, but I cannot recall them now.

Tomorrow we are off to Toledo for the day and then back to Madrid for the Noche en Blacno (some kind of festival-more to follow)

Hasta la Vista,

Hilary

I'm in Madrid too!

So I'm in the cafeteria of our university right now (UC3M- Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) and my first class starts in 50 minutes, so I have about half an hour until I should start trying to find the building. The campus here seems really nice, but it is very easy to get lost because it is a symmetrical campus, meaning it has two halves that mirror each other and have identical buildings...stupid, stupid design. I got to campus today 2 and a half hours before my first class (at 2:30), which was really not necessary at all hahaha, but I wanted to be prepared. 

As Hilary has already suggested, our first week in Madrid has been AMAZING. I love my host family so far, even though there have already been countless misunderstandings. 

mi casa! Surrounded by apartment buildings. It may be the only house in Madrid.

It took me a few days to figure out who all the people in my host family are. Those were some very confusing first days. It was clear that I live with my señora/mother, Maria Antonia, and her oldest daughter, Gema (30). When I first arrived, there was another guy there who looks like he is about 25. No one bothered to explain who he was and I wasn't sure how to ask without being rude, so I assumed he must be Gema's boyfriend or a famiy friend. He walked me around the neighborhood, showed me where the metro is, and ate dinner with us, and then mysteriously left the house. It wasn't until the next morning that my señora explained that he is "not right in the head" and cannot be left alone, so she babysits him during the day while his father is working. Two days later, I asked her what his name is because I was still very confused. He is Juan Luis and she told me about how when he was little, he fell on his head and now things are "not right." I'm not sure exactly what is wrong, but he is really nice to me and I like hanging out with him during the day, so he is like a family member too. I found out yesterday that he is 22 or 23, so he is closest in age to me. He uses the Usted tense when he talks to me though, which is really odd because it's a form of respect for adults who are much older than you, and I'm obviously younger than he is. I'm not sure if I am supposed to correct him or what.

On my third day in Madrid, more family members showed up. My abuela (grandmother) came with the younger daughter, Ana (24), from a vacation somewhere by the Mediterranean. At first I thought my host mom said she was having surgery, but that was not the case...she was just on vacation at a beach. Much better. I haven't seen Ana at all since I met her that day, and yesterday they told me she is in Grenada. So I don't know much about her, except my host mom keeps telling me about how she drives much too fast and she is worried about her. My host brother arrived on that day too! I didn't even realize I had a host brother because the program gave me a list of family members in the house and he was not on it. I think his name is Manuel, but his mom calls him Mani (Manny?). He is probably the friendliest towards me and loves talking to me about current issues and Spanish history, which can be very difficult because I usually can't form complex sentences about my views on immigration or King Felipe II, but I definitely appreciate his attempts. He lives in Mexico and owns a hacienda (which I think is like a fruit farm?), but I don't know how long he is going to be here in Madrid. This weekend he went to a field somewhere and picked a lot of figs that I got to eat during dinner last night- so good! So that is my current family situation, but more people may show up soon as far as I know. They also have a dog named Bulba. She just sleeps all day.

Hilary gave a solid update on all the things we did this week with the monitores. I missed the hard apple cider outing, but instead I went with another monitor (Helios) to Parque Retiro (like the Central Park of Madrid) to walk around and see an art exhibit in the Crystal Palace (ahahahaha...I love CP). very pretty.

            

Vale. it is probably time for me to go to class!

Hasta la vista,

Raquel

Week 1: Madrid

Hello again!  It is me, Hilary!  Alas, Rachel and I can no longer do joint blog posts as we are not living together.  But this way there will be twice as many posts, hopefully.

This was my first week in Madrid, where I will be living for the next four months.  It was a crazy and busy week, and this coming week will be even more so.

Last Monday, I flew here from Santiago and met my fam.  María and María.  They may not like me very much but I cannot understand them because I still don't speak Spanish.  Oh Well... They are quite blunt, I am not.  I am told quite often what not to do (and repeatedly because I never completely understand).  However, they are nice enough and make my dinner, so I'm sure we will get along swimmingly after I get the hang of this language.  Neither of them work, I am not sure what they do during the days as I have not stuck around to find out.  And, I've only ever seen María Jr. wearing an assortment of Snoopy Pjs.

After an awkward first night of nodding and pretending to comprehend I was able to escape on the metro to the Universidad Carlos Tercero Madrid (UC3M) my new college.  It is actually very nice, but I will always prefer Vassar.  The metro is also nice, clean, and easy to understand.  At the college, I met my new monitores: Inez, Clara, Helios, and Pepa, my Spanish student-teacher from last year.  They are super nice and love teaching us idiomatic expressions and curse words.  The following days were filled with  long presentations and boring speeches but at night los monitores took all of us out for a few nights on the town.

The first night I went with Pepa to a place that served sidra, or hard cider.  To drink it I had to pour it as high as I could into my glass which thankfully was over a barrel as much spilling ensued (n.b.this description may not make sense.  What I mean is that I reached my right arm as high as I could with the bottle in it and poured it into the glass in my left hand which was over a barrel).  The sidra was alright.
After this we hung out in a park with a lot of dogs and Asian people selling beer.

The next night I went with Clara to a chungo (sketchy) place and foolishly my comrades and I let her order.  We got oreja (ear) and some other kind of blood/intestine thing... not my fave.  But afterwards we went dancing and that was very fun!

During the day, Rachel, some other friends and I went to see a SPECTACULAR movie...film really, entitled Lope.  It was the most dramatic thing I've ever seen made even more so by the fact that I didn't actually understand it.  It was about Lope de Vega, the Spanish counterpart of Shakespeare, and included a lot of sword fights, sex, and riding horses through open fields.  Hurray!  

Also, in an unrelated but also very funny event; I accidentally ordered two sandwiches at the cafeteria (one chorizo and one cheese) but my friend Felicia out did me when she ordered 3 sammies instead of one.   

Yesterday (Saturday) Pepa threw a pool party/ bbq.  It was a great way to celebrate Labor Day (just kidding, they don't have that here).  But it was super fun.  And by barbeque, I mean a ton a grilled meat.  It seems like that is all they eat here.  At dinner tonight my host mom asked me why I didn't like veggies, and I tried to explain that I haven't even seen a vegetable since I left the states.  

Here is a pic of the post lunch siesta.

and one of the pool:

And so you see, all is well here in Madrid.  Tomorrow my classes begin.  However, I am not really sure what classes I am taking as we never chose them and as the website with the class schedules does not work.  It will be an interesting first day I'm sure.  

Hasta la Vista,

Hilary