madrid, te quiero

Based on logistics (i.e. the fact that I fly out tomorrow morning), this may very well be my last post in Madrid. I can't believe it! I don't really know what to say because doing some sort of in-depth "reflecting" will make me really sad. Save that kind of nonsense for the plane ride.

In keeping with my despedida (goodbye) denial, here are some pretty pictures of Madrid decked out for Christmas. In the US you would say "decked out for the holidays," but the truth is that they ONLY have Christmas so Feliz Navidad works for everything. Much easier, right? In general, Christmas is more religious here (dur). There's a lot less Santa and way more nativity scenes, which are called 'belenes.' Last weekend my friends and I went to a party at our friend Luis' house and his mother had set up a HUGE belen that took up literally a quarter of their huge living room. It had running water, lights, many different levels, sand, trees, etc.

Plaza del Callao. This was literally such a zoo that I was worried that my internal organs would be crushed by a crowd of overzealous abuelas. 

My apartment building. During the day there's a lighted-up Christmas tree in the bottom left corner, but the portero (caretaker?) of the building puts it away so no one steals it. Cortes explained that Spanish people are sometimes xenophobic (which OF COURSE I didn't know!) and the portero hid it so no one stole it. Which makes no sense because the outer door is locked at night. Qué español. 

Another street near Callao. Each street/neighborhood has its own light designs. 

I liked these ones a lot especially. 

I got kind of sentimental in Puerta del Sol last weekend, so I took some pikchures: 

Madrid's "osito" or "little bear" statue. This one of Madrid's most famous statues. It's located in the Puerta del Sol. The bear comes from Madrid's coat of arms: a bear on its hind legs leaning against a strawberry tree surrounded by five stars and topped by a crown. If my vague description doesn't do it for you, here's a photo of the whole shebang itself. 

Puerta del Sol Christmas tree (lights only), the horse statue (monument to King Charles III), and the bell tower from the House of the Post Office. The weird modern thing is the entrance to the metro. 

The Tío Pepe sign, a Madrid landmark. Tío Pepe is a brand of jerez (sherry) that is actually awful. Mom, Dad and I tried it when they visited and I was not a fan. 

Julia and I working in Café Azul, our favorite restaurant/library/hangout spot. I went there three times in the last week to eat yummy vegetarian food, work on my final papers, and just chat with my friends.

Carmen and I had a lunch date at Café Azul on Tuesday. I don't know why I look so happy here because I'm leaving probably for the last time :( 

With my namesake, nbd. 

I've been pretty bummed about leaving all week, especially because my "work" has been tapering off and I've had more time than ever to enjoy the city. Luckily, I may have had the Best Week Ever and did a lot of my favorite things. 

Tuesday: I had my only actual exam in the morning. After that, I went on a lunch date with Carmen at Cafe Azul, our favorite non-Spanish cafe in the wooooorld. We finally ordered the menu del día, which was definitely a good call! I had hummus, a goat cheese and baby greens sandwich and chocolate cake. Yum! Then we went souvenir/present shopping in Sol until we were more than ready for a siesta. That night I met my friends Emma, Melissa and Julia at a Basque sidreria near my house and we drank some sidra (dur) and had yummy pinchos. 

Wednesday: Woke up late, finished my 10-page paper about technological advances in the spanish education system (which is fascinating! seriously, ask me about it), ate lunch and met some friends at the Reina Sofia modern art museum. See foto above. I finally went up on the fourth floor to the temporary exhibitions, which was well worth the schlep because it was this really cool photography/collage exhibit by Hans-Peter Feldmann. I also went up on the observation platforms on the third floor, which was really cool because a lot of the building is made of glass and there were some great views of the city. I was a wee bit nervous because there was really not very much glass between you and a many-meter fall onto calle Atocha. After this, we checked out the museum's awesome bookstore and bought some intellectual presents for friends and family. THEN, we met up with Emma at this cute place in Tribunal called Lolina Vintage Cafe and had delicious cafes con leche. I was pretty wiped after such a busy day, so I went home to rest/eat dinner. I met up with the gang later that night for our last "montaditos miercoles" at Cerveceria Cien Monteditos. Later that night we met up with some more friends and went bar-hopping until we ended up dancing at Star Studio, a discobar that has the best music in the entire world. 

Thursdsay: I had to go to the Center one more time to turn in my aforementioned education-themed paper. I was really tired after my class ended at 12 - not surprising given my day wednesday - so I went home and took a "very long spanish siesta" in the words of Cortes. I woke up just in time to get ready for our program's cena de despedida. We went to a very swank restaurant near the Real Madrid stadium called Rubaiyat. If you're ever in Madrid, I highly recommend it. Everything was absolutely delicious, especially the steak because I hadn't eaten a real hunk o meat in a long time! It was really nice to see all the students, professors, and directors together and say goodbye to everyone. After the dinner, a large percentage of the group went out the Palacio, one of our favorite discotecas. Our spanish friends met us there and we stayed there dancing until it closed at 6am. Fun fact: Palacio's "hint hint get out of here" last song is "Final Countdown." Hahahaha! By that point it was just Carmen, Charlie, Stephanie, Ellie and I plus the spanish students, so we kind of wandered around Sol and I took the metro home at 7:30. 

I don't really know why I'm awake right now, given the previous night's adventures. 

Today/Friday: Maria is going to teach Stephanie and I how to make some of our favorite dishes: tortilla española, chickpeas with spinach and onions, paella, and her yummy roasted chicken. Can't wait! Then later tonight a whole slew of us are meeting at Casa Mingo. I went there when my parents visited, and it's pretty much the best place ever because 1) it's cheap 2) they have probably the best roasted chicken I've ever eaten in my life (no offense, Nana) and 3) they're also a sidreria and you can order bottles of their own sidra that is delicious. Should be fun! 

Sometime in between those activities I also need to pack...grrr. I'm not excited about doing that because it's going to be a really big pain in the neck and it also means that I actually DO have to leave. I have had such an amazing time here and learned so much, not just about speaking spanish but also about adapting to a different culture, being independent, and being more patient and flexible in general. I can't wait to see everyone when I get home...get ready for some great stories!

Besos,

Sophie 

tagliatelle al YUM

Sorry I've been such a slacker recently with the blog-writing. After la familia left, I had a kind of crazy week because our final performance for my Flamenco "class" was that Wednesday. And then, on Thursday I went to Bologna to visit Talia!

Luckily, I squeezed into Italy before the Spanish air controllers' strike began. Oh, those silly Spaniards and their huelgas. This one was particularly clownish; I won't go into the gory details but this article gives a pretty good summary of the whole event.

I got in Thursday very late and left Tuesday morning, which left 4 full days for yummy food and merriment! On Friday for lunch, we went to an AMAZING pizza stand called "Pizza Dui Torre" because it's by the Piazza Due Torri. We ate straight-outta-the-oven slices wrapped in paper on the street aka Italian-style. Delicious! Sorry Star Tavern, but this was definitely the best pizza I've ever eaten. After, we went to an art museum (don't remember its name) in Bologna's town hall in the Piazza Maggiore.It was full of interesting art. We signed the guest book:

Later that day we went to the Basilico of San Petronio, which is also in the Piazza Maggiore. We decided to celebrate Hanukkah by lighting some candles. Not totally kosher, but it was the best we could do! We also checked out the Fountain of Neptune, which is a major site also in the P.M.

  Later that night we went to Restaurante La Brace for super-awesome pasta. I had tortellOni, which, thanks to the waiter who explained this approximately 6 times, is totally different from tortellIni. Apparently tortelloni is bigger. Anyway, mine were ricotta and spinach-filled and cooked in a butter-sage sauce. Considering that they don't even have butter in Spain, I was in cheesy heaven! Later that night we met up with Talia's friend Sheri and went to a few bars before ending the night early-ish.

On Saturday morning, we awoke with the sun - more like at 8 - and caught a very slow train to Florence. After consulting the train timetables, we decided that we really only had time to do one "main" museum in addition to shopping and lunch. We picked the Uffizi instead of the Academia, which was a great choice because there was NO line to get in and we spent two great hours perusing the art. It was really nice to visit the museum with Talia, who is a bona-fide art lover like me. I know a lot about myths and saints from reading, but she's majoring in Art History and knows a lot about painters and time periods. We traded tidbits from our respective areas of expertise and we both ended the day rather educated about art overall. After the museum, we went to another great restaurant (it seems like there are no bad restaurants in all of Italy). It was freezing, so we both ordered scrumptious ribollita stew. After lunch, we walked around near the Ponte Vecchio. I ate some necessary gelato (stracciatella, nutella, and chocolate) and we bought some mysterious things for various people. On our way back to the train station, we walked through some darling Christmas markets and bought postcards and I got a leather dragon keychain. We lurked around the Basilica di Santa Maria di Fiore aka the Duomo. It was just as beautiful as I remember. 

When we got back to Bologna, we went out to dinner at Osteria dell' Orsa, one of Talia's favorite restaurants in Bologna. It was really fun -- communal tables, a menu that changes daily, and just a generally fun atmosphere. I had tagliatelle al ragu, which the rest of the world knows as pasta bolognese. Afterwards, we went to one of Bologna's clubs, Hobby One, and stayed there more or less until it closed at 4. Which was super weird because in Madrid things don't even get going until then! 

I'm going to skip over Saturday because we spent most of the day bumming around Talia's apartment eating pizza from Due Torri (who also deliver!). We made it to Gelateria Gianni, and as it turns out it was their last day before they closed for renovations. Talia and Sheri were very sad, but I was just happy to get some more amazing gelato! 

On Monday, we spent another great day exploring Bologna. It was heinously freezing, but we climbed 97.2 meters up many, many narrow wooden steps to the top of the Asinelli Tower, the taller of the Due Torri. Apparently in the 12th and 13th centuries for some reason it was very popular to build towers; during that time there were as many as 180 towers in Bologna!  The towers, arcades, and Porti around the center of the city still stand from the middle ages! Bologna is definitely a city that still lives in its history, as opposed to Madrid, where almost everything is brand-new. From the top of the tower, we got a so-so view of the city because of the weather, but I can imagine that it's amazing when the sky is clear. One of Bologna's nicknames is "La Rossa," meaning "the red" because of the distinctive stone used to construct its buildings. FYI-- the others are "La dotta" (erudite, because of the medieval University of Bologna which was founded in 1088) and "la grossa" (fat; I think you can figure this one based on my experience so far!).  

  

finally made it!

 a little sign at the entrance shows how the asinelli tower pwns

 almost all of italy's other towers. our gal is in the center.  

These are out of order. Photos from the treacherous ascent!

 Note the cloud level; we went above that. 

 talia looks like she's down a well like eddy in the CRB song

 Arrivederci Bologna!

día de gracias

Happy Thanksgiving! My semester in Spain is almost over, and I'm getting a bit nostalgic/reflective. Keeping with the theme d' jour,  I've compiled a list of things I'm thankful for:

1. Cafe con leche - justifies my caffeine addiction every time!
2. Madrid's art museums especially the "golden triangle": The Prado, the Reina Sofia, and the Thyssen. Going to a museum every week has been one of my favorite parts of living in a major metropolis.
3. The wonders of modern technology - skype and email (and blogs!) - that keep me in touch with my friends and family back home. I would probably be way more stressed/lonely if it weren't for the internet!
4. The fact that I stuck with Spanish for almost 10 years. Can't believe that I've gone from "Hola. Cómo estás?" to (near) linguistic proficiency. Nothing is more rewarding than having real Spanish conversations with real Spanish people.
5. The academically-wussy classes here that allow me to travel on the weekends and explore the city without being tied to my computer and textbooks. Also a welcome breather in between a tough sophomore year and what looks like to be a challenging junior spring.
6. The great people I've met on my program and in Madrid. Seriously, everyone on my program is so nice and fun. Who knew that a cross-section from every liberal arts school in the country would be such a simpatico group?
7. Plaza Mayor. I know it's one of the main tourist areas of Madrid, but I can't help loving it. It's just SO old and cool and great. This might not be historically accurate, but I can easily imagine medieval knights meeting up there for some café.
8. Tapas! Specifically tortilla española, manchego cheese and roasted green peppers. Mmmm.
9. The opportunity and ability to travel. Before this semester, I was never involved in any of our family trip-planning. In addition to being amazing and fun, my trips around Europe have taught me how to be organized, patient (especially with delayed Ryanair flights...) and responsible.

Aaand last but not least (although a bit cheesy)

10. My great family, who have always supported me in thousands of ways and who are here enjoying Madrid with me this week!

Enjoy the tryptophan!

Love,
Sophie

finde de tranquilidad

After three weeks of constant traveling, I am happy to finally be back in Madrid for a few weeks to catch my breath!

I really needed it, because I actually had to work this past week. Although my program is run through Hamilton and claims to maintain a high academic standard, the reality is that this is Spain and no one works that hard. Thus, I've been cruising rather easily this semester so far. I guess it's a good thing because it's given me the opportunity to travel and enjoy the city without constantly being bogged down by papers and tests. The downside is that now we're in the last month of the semester (crazy!) and my academic brain is out of shape. We don't have a library in our building and the rules about who can use the "public" libraries are really sketchy, so I've been doing all of my work in my homestay aka in my bed, which really isn't conducive to getting a lot done. Next week I have a grammar exam as well as a 10-page anthropology research paper due, so this past week I spent a lot of time in our Centro working after my classes. The work paid off, because I finished my essay on Thursday afternoon and was ready for the weekend!

Although I'd been out of Madrid (and more important, Madrid nightlife) for almost a month, I decided to take it easy and get some rest. On Thursday night some friends and I went to a jazz club in the Alonso Martinez neighborhood. It was a smaller group than usual and we could actually converse because the music wasn't too loud. It was great to catch up with some of my friends on the program that I hadn't seen in a while because I'd been traveling so much!

On Friday I went to a "cultural activity" run by the program's administration. What that entailed was walking around the Plaza Mayor area for an hour and then going to eat Mexican food. It was really fun because a) we didn't have to pay b) it wasn't spanish food and c) we got to hang out with the directors and talk to them in a non-academic environment. Although the meal we shared was technically "lunch," my roommate and I didn't get home until 6 pm! That night I went with a big group to the midnight premiere of Harry Potter 7! If you know me at all, you probably can guess that I was bouncing off the walls with excitement. IT WAS AWESOME! We watched it in version original with spanish subtitles, which was not too annoying and rather funny because some of the terms had goofy spanish translations. For example, whenever anyone called anyone else "mate" (which is common in british slang, as in "what's up, mate?") the spanish subtitle would say "tío," which literally means uncle. I already knew that particular slang term, but one girl didn't and she was so confused! I guess that's one way to learn spanish slang!

Today (aka Sunday) I went to the Rastro street market again. It was just as fun/overwhelming as before, but significantly colder. It's no Hamilton, but Madrid is definitely starting to get a bit chilly! The weather is a bit deceptive because 84% of the time it's sunny out. After the Rastro I stopped home for a quick (2-hour) lunch/siesta combo and then went to meet my friends Melissa and Emma in Café Azúl, one of our favorite spots to get coffee and do homework. They have free wifi, so I brought my computer and finished my anthropology paper. I wanted to be all clear for the coming week so that when my parents and Jack are here I don't have to work and instead can guide them around Madrid! That's all for now, can't believe that I have less than a month to go!

Love,
S

getting lost in amsterdam

The title is a reference to one of my favorite songs ever, amsterdam by guster. But seriously, it was even more confusing than venice, which was pretty darn difficult to navigate! On the bright side, my travel companions (Charlie, Mike and Nzaba - it was quite a bro-tastic weekend) and I got to explore a lot of the city that we normally wouldn't have seen. Unfortunately it was pretty cold and our Madrid-adjusted bodies could not tolerate wandering around in the 10˚C weather, so we spent a lot of time hanging out in cafes and other indoor venues. Here are some photos from the wandering. So pretty!

damrak-- one of the biggest streets/canals. you can see the train station in the distance.

sex museum. we went there. it was interesting.

most demanding/controlling street performer I have ever seen! 

charlie took the same photo; according to him the biker makes it look more "dutch"

neat alley I found when Charlie and I were trying to find Mike and Nzaba

love canals! 

Charlie and I in the I AMsterdam sign. I need to figure out how to photoshop the two pictures together to get the whole sign in one shot! 

Museumplein: large square/park with Rijksmuseum on one end and Van Gogh museum at the other. Also home to the I AMsterdam sign. 

I really wanted to go to the Van Gogh museum but unfortunately by the time we got to the Museumplein (it's a bit far outside of the main downtown where we were staying) it was 3:30 and the museums both close at 6 AND there were huge lines at both. Charlie and I did the Rijksmuseum, which has a lot of classic paintings buy Dutch dudes like Vermeer and Rembrandt. It also had a lot of scenes from the Dutch Golden Age -- shipping, trading, tulips, protestantism, you name it. I find this period of history really interesting so I had a great time in the museum. There were also some non-painting works on exhibit like Delft tiles and silver engraved plates and sculptures. Mike and Nzaba went to the Van Gogh museum, for which I will be eternally jealous because I LOVE Van Gogh and always copied his style when I did painting in high school. Although that may have just been because I can't draw for love or money. I guess that's something for my next trip...

I'm sorry this is such a sorry excuse for an update, but I actually have work this week and my parents and Jack are visiting next week so I'm gearing up for that as well!! Hopefully I'll have time to fit in another post about life in Madrid--this is the first weekend in almost a month that I've been in my home city!

Love,
S

penny for the guy = $10

Continuing my month of constant travel, I spent last weekend in LONDON! Two of my friends on the program, Carmen and Mike, have Swarthmore friends studing in London this semester and I decided to tag along to visit them. I thought I´d just have my HCAYS friends in England, but as it turns out I was super busy meeting up with old friends.

We flew in on Thursday night and I went to see Christine, "the best nanny in the world." I was a little nervous about seeing her, because although we´d communicated over email and facebook, I hadn´t seen her since I was 9. She´s living about 45 minutes outside of London with her husband Daniel and their adorable 2 year old daughter Lucy. I shouldn´t have worried, because Christine was just as friendly and fun as I remember. Lucy was asleep, but the adults (I guess that includes me now--weird) ordered in Indian food, drank wine and talked about old times. It was really great to catch up. We all decided it was better if I set out for London in the morning, so I stayed the night and thus got to meet Lucy on Friday morning! She´s so cute and really smart -- Christine is teaching her sign language and Spanish. They were all heading up to Newcastle to visit friends for the weekend, so I took a train to London in the morning. I was so happy to see Christine and meet her wonderful family:

As soon as I got into London, the counter-culture shock set in. After a few months of hearing and seening exclusively Spanish in public, English was music to my ears. England was really comforting because a) I have so many great memories of visiting there with my family in the past and b) the culture is close-ish-er to that of the U.S. (i.e. English-speaking and non-siesta-taking). For these reasons, I was grinning like an idiot in Liverpool Street Station. People must have thought I was crazy.

Joe and Matt are both at Queen Mary College in the East End. After finding the campus and dropping my stuff at their apartment, we took the tube to Westminister and started some serious sightseeing. We saw: Westminister Abbey, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, St. James´ Park, and the National Gallery. Phew! Most of the sites we just looked at from the outside because it was too ´spensive to go in. This was a theme of my trip. Here are some faux-toes:

houses of parliament

whitehall palace

some ivy that looked pretty

buckingham palace

st. james' park--the real St. James Gate! 

big ben with the london eye peeking out from behind a building

westminster abbey

chilling with oliver cromwell outside HofP

big ben

That night, we split up and Carmen and her boyfriend had a date night and Mike, Matt and I went to Brick Lane for Indian food. I went for a spicy curry, but Mike made friends with all the waiters by ordering the spiciest vindaloo they had. He was literally sweating because it was so hot!

I wanted to meet up with my friend Rae from high school and see some Guy Fawkes´Day bonfires, but our mobiles weren´t working and we couldn´t figure out how to find each other. However, I did meet up with Talia and Zach Kwartler at a pub in Shore Ditch, one of London´s oldest areas. We had a pint at the pub and then went with a big group of Matt´s friends to this bar/club in the same neighborhood. Here´s another bit of culture shock - at both of these places, we stayed until last call. At the bar, that was 11 p.m. and at the club it was 2 a.m. For a seasoned madrileña like myself, it was crazy early!

The next morning, Mike and I woke up early because we wanted to have time for a full english breakfast before meeting Zach and Talia at the Tower of London. I got the "vegetarian version," which had baked beans, fried eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, and hash browns. Mike's non-veggie version included sausage, bacon and black pudding. Needless to say, we were full for quite a long time afterwards.

The Tower of London was great! I remember vaguely going as a kid, but we spent the entire morning and then some checking out the crown jewels, armory, prison rooms, etc. My personal favorite was a punch bowl in the royal plate that holds 144 bottles of wine. Obviously for when the royals want to rage.

tower bridge NOT london bridge (the yeoman warder was adamant about this)

some people got axed here

what a clown!

After finding a "pubby pub" and eating fish 'n' chips and a pint for lunch, the Kwartlers split to go to a play. Mike and I crossed the river (on the REAL london bridge) and went to see Shakespeare's Globe Theater and the Tate Modern museum. The Tate just opened a new exhibition by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei that is comprised of 100 million handmade, handpainted porcelain sunflower seeds. 

millennium bridge, thames river, st. paul's cathedral

that's a lotta seeds, man!

After a really long day, we were totally pooped so went out for dinner and then stayed in on saturday night. But here's where the fun starts!

Part 1: Carmen was staying an extra day and flying back monday morning, but Mike and I were leaving on Sunday morning at 8:20. We set alarms for 5:30 and proceeded to pass out. Somehow, neither alarm went off! We woke up at 6:30 and RAN to the bus station to get to the train station to take the train to the airport. We got to the airport at 8:00 A.K.A. TWENTY MINUTES BEFORE OUR FLIGHT LEFT AND SOMEHOW MADE OUR FLIGHT. WHAT?!

Part 2: While we were waiting in line to get on the plane, I ran to a little stand to buy some juice and a snack for the plane. I got on the plane, and realized I didn't have my wallet! In a panic, I ran up the aisle and asked the flight attendant if  I could go back and look for it in the store. He said I couldn't, but one of the tarmac dudes in an orange vest volunteered to do it for me. 5 MINUTES LATER HE WALKED UP THE AISLE IN THE PLANE AND HANDED ME MY WALLET WITH ALL MY MONEY AND CARDS AND EVERYTHING THERE. WHAT?! x2

I've been extremely careful ever since because I think I used up all of my luck for the next 10 years that morning. After those two adventures everything went smoothly and I was back in my house in Madrid by noon. Wowza! 

Besos,

S