Our Little Corner of the World

These are pictures of our apartment!  Us with our little Abuelita as well!  It is small but it works wonderfully for the three of us.

 This is Margot, our Abuela and I!!! We're a cute little group

 Here is the main room

 The table in the main room where we eat

 The main room again

 The bathroom!

Our little room!

So here is my Spain home!

Browsing El Rastro!

So Madrid has this large outdoor market each Sunday until 3.  It is like eastern market in D.C. except it is about 10 times larger.  Really.  It is so much to take in that Charlotte, Jen (the girls I went with), and I had to walk up and down it a few times to even begin taking it in, and we didn't even see all of it!!!  This is how we spend last Sunday....

 There was a lot of American stuff and more British/American bands.  This one stand had baby wear like this Guns 'n' Roses Bib and there were ACDC and Metallica onesies.  I loved it.

Here are Charlotte (left) and Jill inquiring about a pair of really cool 5 euro shoes.  Unfortunately they did not have them in the right size for Charlotte.

 Giant Gummy bears in a story MADE OF GUMMY BEARS.

 Right next to the Candy Store there were little backpacks with the psychic Octopus on them.  They really love him here since they did win and all haha!

 La Plaza Mayor
Just about every town has a Plaza Mayor.  It is the central portion of the town and so for Madrid this was the central portion of the ORIGINAL city of Madrid.  It is a beautiful square with people relaxing at cafe's all along the sides.

 He was paining on glass and then selling them.  It was impressive.

So earlier that day we were trying to find a good Churro place.  I wanted to go to the one I'd gone to 4 years earlier when I was in high school.  I couldn't find it....I knew it was somewhere off of La Puerta del Sol and I knew I'd recognize it if I could find it...but I couldn't.  As we were walking Charlotte pointed out a place.  When I looked at where she was pointing.....IT WAS THE CHURRO PLACE!  I was so happy for that wonderful moment of nostalgia!  It was exactly the same.  It was down an ally that began with a little white theater where our group had sat to eat our churros and chocolate.

It had the same little green door and the same green interior.  It was such a nice reminder of my trip before.

 They gave us SO many large churros and the most WONDERFUL chocolate I have had in Spain. They are made fresh and always warm when you get them and just FANTASTIC. As I was ordering, I got to see what the churros are like right after they are made.

 Cool right???

Eating churros this time reminded me of last time............

Aren't I adorable?  All in all it was a great Sunday in Madrid!

Traveling Around Toledo

Today was a wonderful day!  Some of the MD people at about 7 Aussies went with one of the Alcalingua professors to Toledo at 10am today for the whole day.  It was so nice!  We visited the Cathedral, the Alcazar (fortress), the Santa Cruz Museum which used to be a hospital and had statues, tapestries, and paintings from as far back as the 12th century.

It was also really nice to spend the day with the Australian students that are at Alcalingua because they are only here for one more week and because we share a lot of cultural similarities.  They are all so so nice and I'm really going to miss them!!!

So we were dropped off at the bottom of the city because the streets are too narrow for the bus to get around.  Toledo is a city on a hill, as you can see from the beautiful panorama below!

 I look and am very cold and staring into the sun haha!

 This was our travel group for the day!

A view of the Cathedral from across the river.  It really defines the city line.

We first walked into a gorgeous plaza were a few of us popped into a bakery and bought some pastries and Marzipan.  Toledo is famous for it's Marzipan.  We then headed towards El Museo Santa Cruz (The Santa Cruz Museum).

 The first floor had all tapestries and then to get to the section on old ceramics we had to pass through this very moorish looking courtyard.  Apparently this building used to be a hospital.  I found that out from the Spain book Mom got me! Thanks Mom!

In the main building up a floor were works of art.  There were many original Greco paintings.  This one is not only an original, but it is also in it's original alter framing.  There were also some small sculptures and older pieces of carvings.

After the Museum we headed past the Alcanzar.

 It was closed so we didn't go inside, but it was massive and very beautiful.

 Random Church.

 We then headed over to the Cathedral.  Below is the courtyard in front of the Cathedral.

 

 

The Catedral de Toledo

The statues along the façade and all along the top are just beautiful.  This cathedral is just so breathtaking.

This is the main alter with a gold leaf covered retable with various religious pictures.

After the Cathedral we had a bit of time to ourselves to walk around and shop.  I was reminded of my Mom many times as I passed a window with Lladrós in it.

 Don't worry Mom, I didn't forget :-)  I'm just waiting for one that I find that has some significance.  While looking, my decision to study abroad was confirmed by what I'm going to call a sign.  As I was browsing the Lladrós in a random store window, I found one that I am fairly certain is identical or at least VERY close to the one that my parents had on the top of their wedding cake.

Now I'm not 100% sure, but maybe you can verify Mom and Dad?

After shopping we walked around the city some more and then made our way home.  It was really a lovely day.

The view from the other side of the Tajo river.  The longest river in Spain.

Touring Around Alcalá Part 2

Well here is a slightly late update of how I passed the time last Sunday!

I was too tired from my explorations of Madrid the day before to return to the city so I decided to explore my own city!

 The birds are everywhere.  They nest on top of just about every tall point in the town.  It's fantastic.  They also make this strange clicking noise when they call out that are kind of eerie at night.

They are huge birds with gigantic nests.

Here is my beautiful town square.  It's the view of Plaza Cervantes from the street I walk up from my home stay.  I love that I've figured out how to shoot panoramas on my camera!!!

 The street that our University Building is on.

 An unknown building on the square.

 I really should figure out what this is....

 La Plaza de Cervantes

 So after, we walked along the outskirts of the city because it is bordered by nothing but wilderness.  It's really beautiful.  This is me and my friend Bethany from the MD group.

 The landscape is amazing, and at times it looks like the landscape of the southwest!

It was a warm Sunday afternoon and everyone was out with their families in this little area biking, rollerblading, and playing fútbol!  We had a wonderful time just taking a 2 hour walk meandering about the city!

Culturally Competent

Ok so I know I've been inundating you all with pictures and lovely banter, but I figured I should try and be educational here too.  This is my CULTURE POST!  Yay!  Get pumped people.

Well, life here is a bit slower.  People don't have urgency in their step or when they eat.  In fact, we spend about 2 hours at a restaurant each time we're there.  We can't ever get the check!  Also, no one eats while they walk.  Now, I understand that I should be culturally aware, but eating and going is how I function so sadly during those 5 minutes I will stick out as a foreigner.

Punctuality is also not stressed here.  Our classes usually start 5 to ten minutes late.  I was 15 minutes late to class on Friday because my alarm on my ipod never went off.  I was practically running to get there, and when I did I began apologizing feverishly and my professor just said, "Oh no don't worry it's Friday!  We're just glad you're here!"

Partying and celebrating is another aspect of the culture.  I thought that Americans were crazy people, no.  My most intense party friends would have a hard time keeping up here.  The bars and discotecas are full around 3 am when most College Park bars are closing.  Things don't slow down until 7am and then after that most people go to after parties.....yeah....insane.

Also, life here is on a later schedule.  People wake up around 8:30, have a coffee and snack around 11 and then a large lunch around 2 at home with family.  Siesta (nap/rest) time lasts until 4:30 when people then go back to work.  Around 6 or 7 everyone walks around the town enjoying the atmosphere and getting tapas with friends.  Then dinner occurs around 9 or 10 pm.  At 11:30 or midnight there are still people out walking around on the weekends.

In class it is rude to eat or drink anything but water.  At home, there is a bare foot aversion of some kind.  Everyone I've talked to said you ALWAYS wear socks or slippers in the house.  Bare feet are never seen.  I'm not sure if this is because they think of the floors as a dirty place or because they heat sparingly so it is usually chilly in the apartments.  They don't dry clothes in a dryer, at least not at our apartment.  They are washed in a lavadora and then hung to dry in a little alcove next to everyone's apartment.

There is a government mandated time for sales here.  All stores MUST have sales for the month of January.  The word REBAJAS (sales) is plastered in every store window.  It's quite interesting and very lucky for all of us girls on the trip!

Finally food.  So I went on the hunt for Peanut butter the other day.  The way my program works is that for my homestay I chose 2 meals a day.  This means I have to find 1 meal each day.  That meal is always lunch or dinner.  Well after looking at prices for things I decided that I should buy some groceries so I could make food on my own.  Also, getting food to go doesn't exist either.  Yes they have some normal fast food places (Dominoes, McDonald's, Burger King), but other than that there really isn't anything other than sit down bars and restaurants.

I'd had PB&J at a friends dorm room (some students stay in the Residencias on main campus), and realized it was a great and easy way to eat.  So I grab bread, jelly.........and then discover that apparently peanut butter does not exist in Spain.  They just don't use it.  When trying to ask my Spainish mom about it she was saying I needed a bigger store and pointing me to a few.  I missed the subtly in what she was saying, but luckily her daughter was there too.  Maria Josepha quickly pointed out that I wanted peanut butter WITHOUT chocolate.  This stunned my abuela.  She could not comprehend why on earth I'd want a spread without chocolate.  She also was unsure where to find it.  I had to go to two smaller markets and one ALMOST normal sized grocery store to find VERY over priced peanut butter.  Here was the result.

Here is the shelf on which I found the peanut butter up at the VERY top left corner.  The red jars are peanut butter.  EVERYTHING ELSE on this shelf was some form of chocolate spread or chocolate hazelnut spread.  My god.  How they have these choices and are not as obese as Americans just beats me.

That is the culture report so far.  When I think of more differences I'll let you know!

Blog Following

Ok so I have found that following my blog is nice for me to see that I am loved, but retarded in the sense that you people are not made aware of new posts.  In order to get email informed of new posts you must subscribe to my blog on the right.  Then you'll get notified of my crazy runnings around without having to do anything other than check your email :-)

BUT DONT STOP FOLLOWING.  I need the self esteem booster :-)

Madrid Meandering

So yesterday was our class trip to Madrid....class trip, that sounds so elementary school :-)  We were given an assignment to not only learn about the Archeological Museum we were visiting, but to also understand all the directions for getting around Madrid so that we could navigate the train system, metro system, and walking without our Professor's help.  I must say, I am proud of my map reading abilities.

I'm a pro.  This is me on the train on the way into the city.

So we first went to El Palacio Real in Madrid.  I'd been there on my trip in high school so seeing it again was such a deja vu moment!  My group from the trip junior year of high school could have popped up next to me and it wouldn't have been weird at all!  It was just a beautiful as the last time I saw it, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to see it again.

 Gardens next to the Palace.

 This is the courtyard in the front of the castle.  The castle apparently has something like 2,800 rooms....so it's a tad small.....

I really wanted to show what it looked like inside but they don't allow photography.  It was extremely lavish though.  Gold gilding everywhere and velvet rugs and furniture covers.  Haven't I just painted a picture for you?

Next we walked down to Puerta del Sol.  It was packed!  Apparently all the after Christmas sales end Feb 28th so EVERYONE was there shopping.  It was so nice to walk around by myself for a little while though.  Sometimes being in a big group got frustrating.

 That's the government building in the middle of Puerta del Sol.  I'll hopefully get more time back in Madrid to get more pictures of the city.

Our next stop was the National Archeology Museum.

 This was a sun dial.  The little light at the bottom moves according to the suns position in the sky over certain notches in the base.  SO COOL!

 My coffin better look as cool as this.

 This was called Caida del Los Angeles Malos or Fall of the Evil Angels.  It has all of these smaller pieces carved so intricately.  Below is another smaller and zoomed photo of it.  It was my favorite piece in the museum.

This pot with bones was some form of burial that I thought was neat.

Afterward we walked around and got tapas at this restaurant.  We got several types of sausage, fried fish, muscles, Croquetas (a fried cheesy, bacon, ham thing), and Chopitos Romanas.  Those are MINI fried squid.  So freaking cool.

 

 

 At dinner I also had my first glass of wine.  It was a very smooth red.  I had the glass, but then decided I really didn't want more.  It was ok, but I would honestly just prefer diet coke!  Clearly I'm not cultured enough to be European!

After that I got ice cream with some girls and then we headed home.  It was a long and wonderful day and I will ABSOLUTELY be going back many times this semester.