Hal's in Madrid!

Hal is here visiting right now so I'm not going to post much, but we had a very Madrileño day today so I figured I would put up some pictures of it until I can actually post about what we're up to. 

This morning we woke up late and went to the Prado (which I don't have a picture of). Then pregamed the aforementioned Mercado San Miguel with a bocadillo de calamares (calamari sandwich). Then at the market we tried a little bit of a bunch of things... toast topped with bonito and roasted red peppers, sweet burrata topped with avocado, croquetas filled with goat cheese, croquetas filled with squid, pickled eggplant, olives, sangria...

Then we went and got churros y chocolate at the most famous churrería in Sol...  

 ...and then rented a rowboat on the lake in El Retiro.

 Some of us relaxed...

...others of us rowed. (just kidding we switched off).

We had what Hal called a very "New York Times 36-hours" day (referring to the 36 hour guides to cities where you do all the touristy but still kinda hip things in a short amount of time). But then instead of going out to dinner at some random restaurant, we came home and had a lovely dinner with my host family. Eva's really been going all out with dinners (tortilla española, different types of spanish cheese and roasted green peppers tonight) because Hal's here. They're all so excited to have him and clearly I am too. Random sampling of other things we've done since he got here last Thursday: go to my classes (ugh), see the Rastro (outdoor Sunday fleamarket) and snack on tapas with my host family, wander around the neighborhood Malasañas, go to the biggest club in Madrid, eat Thai and Mexican food... and there's still so much left on the list! Will update more soon.

Besos,
Anjuli

P.S. futbol pictures!

The full story. Location: Madrid.

Okay so apart from last night, I've had a very eventful weekend! Friday, the program made us go to this intercultural workshop with a psychologist so that we could talk about culture shock and whatnot. We had one of these during orientation too, so this was a follow up. I didn't get a ton out of it because I guess by now I'm used to processing the cultural differences and odd feelings that come from being abroad. Nevertheless, it was an interesting moment for some reflection.

Then I went to ARCO, the international modern art fair with my sketching class. It was enormous and so cool. It's a really expensive show (21 euros for students, 40 for adults) and its purpose is largely for collectors and galleries to come and buy pieces. We had free time to walk around for 2 and a half hours and check things out so my friends and I tried to see as much as we could without going totally crazy. Some of my favorite pieces:

Then Friday evening I got home from the fair and had an interview with an organization that runs psychological programming both within prisons as well as with diversion programs here in Madrid. I knew when I got to Spain that I would want to do some sort of volunteering, but I didn't think that I would have such a meaningful opportunity like this one. I met with the director Friday (after translating my resume into Spanish, ugh) and we talked about some different options for my working with them. Unfortunately, because their programs are minimum 9 months long, I'm not able to lead any of their support groups or really participate in a lot of direct service work in the prisons. This makes a lot of sense to me and has been something that continues to frustrate me about the instability of my life right now. Because I'm never in one place long enough, for something like this, I would never be able to develop the relationships and trust with defendants that is necessary to work with them on a deep level. Regardless, the director was very open to my participating in some capacity. The projects she's most interested in my working on are the ones with men who have committed crimes of domestic violence and are in their programs instead of in prison. Totally up my alley... especially after advocating for so many people to be placed in programs instead of jails last summer, it would be great to actually see the other side of it. So, for now I should be able to observe their classes and then do some more clerical work and whatnot to help out in their office. Either way, I'm excited to be in that environment and be able to improve my Spanish/meet more Spanish people. They're also only a 5 minute walk from my house, which is great. 

Thennnn Friday night I went out with like 20 students in my program and 10 Spanish students to a bar, where we took over one of their back rooms to hang out and be unbelievably loud (definitely the only thing louder than Americans or Spanish people is the combination). That was super fun and it was nice to hang out both with people on my program and with new people. It's always a hard balance to strike between spending time with my American friends and trying to meet Spaniards, so it was great to have both at once.

Yesterday I spent the day shopping and running some errands until the futbol game. Earlier this past week I bought tickets to the Real Madrid- Santander Racing game yesterday with a ton of kids on the program. I was excited to go with all of them, but then a couple days ago, Eva told me her friend who has season tickets had 4 passes for us to go all together. I was able to sell my ticket, luckily, so instead of sitting up in the top deck, I saw the game from like the 20th row for free! Eva had me invite a friend too, so I brought my friend Lynne who is a HUGE soccer fan (and was teaching me about the game/freaking out/screaming in English the whole time). It was great to do it with Eva and Carlota since they're such big Real fans and almost always if I have a choice between doing something fun with my host family or program kids, I pick my host family. So I ate lots of pipas (sunflower seeds) and cheered when Real scored (4 goals against 0!!) and generally had a great time. Unfortunately I'm having trouble loading all my photos onto my computer, but as soon as I can, I'll put up my photos from the game too. 

One thing that I am starting to realize is that I should probably do some homework... I spent some of this afternoon doing stuff for school but also spent some of the afternoon lying around in the sun (finally!!) in Retiro park with some friends... hopefully soon my work ethic will kick in with my UAM classes, because my program class just are not doing it for me. Maybe if I go to bed now, I'll wake up early and get some work done... or I'll just spend more time now with Eva watching the Spanish version of the Grammys...

Besos,

Anj

You know you're not Spanish when... Location: Madrid.

You get home earlier than your host mom on a Saturday night. At 3:15 AM.


I'm about to go to bed now, but quick facts about this weekend:

1. Went to ARCO, the international modern art fair going on this weekend, with my art class yesterday. It was super cool.
2. Spent last night taking over a bar with like 15 kids from my program and like 10 Spanish students.
3. Went to the Real Madrid game tonight and sat in like the 20th row. (They won 4-0!!)
4. Lots of pictures are on the way sometime soon!

Buenas noches,
Anj

More photos! Location: Madrid.

I've been having a great weekend so far, spending a lot of time with my host family. Yesterday Eva took me out to a really sweet dinner to try Gallego food (from the region of Galicia) because she knows how much I love padron peppers. Unfortunately it is not the season for them to be spicy, but we still had a great time chatting over some mild ones and some delicious pulpo (octopus) and cañas (beers). It's great that one-on-one time with her is so fun too. Then today I spent the day shopping in the city center with her and Rebeca. We went to this market called El Mercado de San Miguel which is this incredible indoor food market with gourmet food stands: one exclusively for cheese, another for meat, another for fish, another for croquetas...

Inside the market

 Pretty café con leche!

 Rebeca y Eva

The most amazing olive stand to ever exist

Tomorrow I'm going over to my friend's house so her host mom and host mom's friend can teach us how to make paella. And then I guess I should do homework at some point too...

Also, here are some pictures of my room I've been meaning to put up so you can get a better idea of where I live:

I should really take photos of the kitchen because that's where I end up spending all my time with them anyway. 

Off to dinner.

xoxo

Anj

Hello winter. Location: Segovia.

Yet another frustration with my program came up this past weekend when they decided, in the height of winter, to take us North instead of South to the frigid town of Segovia. Fortunately I've been to Segovia before, when I was here 4 years ago with a high school program, so this visit was more of a review for me. It's funny actually to compare my pictures between then, when I was frolicking in the grass with my then-boyfriend, and this past weekend, when my toes were in pain they were so cold... We just spent Friday night in Segovia, running around the town Friday and Saturday seeing the important monuments. Here are some pictures from our visit:

Snowing!!

 Inside the Alcazar (Castle)

 The aqueduct. 20 centuries old, no morter between the stones and still standing. 

We escaped to a coffee shop so our fingers could defrost

And... 4 years ago?!?!?

With my program. Sooo young!

The Alcazar, which I could actually get a picture of because it wasn't disgusting outside!

In other news, my host cousin (who Eva, when I first met him, called, "the one with all the piercings") came for dinner tonight and invited me to go out with him and his friends Saturday. Especially with people on my program travelling every weekend, I'm excited to have Spanish friends. After class today I went with some girls in my class to get a coffee in the cafeteria and that was great too. Hurray integration!

Besos,

Anj

Real life beginning. Location: Madrid

Big news: I finally have a schedule! Hurray! Today I went to the class I was hoping to switch into since the hours and workload of psychopathology just don't seem worth it. The class is called "Psychology, Culture and Society," but it's really more of a psychology and art class (visual art and music). The professor is suuuper chill and as such, a bit difficult to understand. After introducing the course to us today, he said he had 3 things to tell us about himself

1. He swears a lot. Which, I did indeed find is true throughout the class. I should start counting the number of times he says "joder." (I'll leave you to look that up at your own risk)
2. He is a bit pedantic. 
3. He is very narsissistic. But, evidently, self-aware.

I think this is going to be a much better fit for me, as he is understanding and the class will be much more conversation-based than memorization-based. There are a few other Americans in the class, although they are none from my program. When we all ambushed him at the end of class to introduce ourselves, he mentioned that it would be no problem if we want to turn in papers in English, French, Italian... whatever. Everyone else seemed thrilled with that and while I'm happy to hear he is so understanding, in no way am I planning on doing anything in English at UAM. Regardless, I'm excited that I won't spend this semester sick from lack of sleep or overwhelmed by how much time I'm spending at the university. A friend of one of the students who works for the program is in the class too and already offered to be my study abroad "godmother" and help me know what's going on.

Yesterday, my sociology class started too, although it doesn't really start until next week because the professor wants to wait until students finish exams from last semester. He is also very understanding, as he is familiar with the program and there are 3 of us in that class. He honestly seems more tickled than anything else that we're there and practicing Spanish. When we first met, he outright told me that my Spanish was great, chuckling all the while, and then looked at my friend Lucas who is also taking his class and said, "you, not so much." Oh, the classic Spanish directness. At least I fit in well here.

Last night, I took my first dance class. The studio I'm going to is called "El Horno" and it's enormous, with like 12 different spaces and a huuuuge variety of classes (from Salsa to Belly Dancing to Ballet to Bollywood...). I liked the hip hop class I took a lot and it was so great to get back into it. The teacher told me after class to come to the higher level tonight because she thinks I'll enjoy it more, so I'm going to go check it out. Luckily, I like her style a lot, which was a concern of mine... particularly when the Spanish often call hip-hop "funky" or "sexy style."

It feels a lot better to have my life a little more organized. My host family continues to be great... they're very excited for Hal to visit in 2 weeks and my host mom keeps asking me what kind of food she should make him and what not. She bought him some special canned fish because I had mentioned he likes that kind of stuff and keeps reiterating that he is her guest too. Much like my host grandmother, who, upon hearing about Hal's host mother's custom of not wearing a shirt sometimes in the house, said she would welcome Hal with "brazos abiertos y tetas tapadas" (open arms and covered tits).

Okay, I'm off to my second dance class now. I'll post about this past weekend in Segovia with pictures sometime tonight or tomorrow.

xoxo
Anj