I can’t believe my semester is half over already! 52 days down, 47 to go (but who’s counting?) J I have totally fallen in love with Spain, but also never forget that I have a lot of people I love back in the States. Leaving will be bitter-sweet for sure, but especially as it gets closer to the holidays, I am more and more excited to go home.
So readers, here I am again with a bunch of little stories for you and nothing too important. I will start with the most important thing though…my very cheap day in Madrid this past Sunday!
Jenn and I have been wanting to go to Madrid and check out the museums there (El Prado and la Reina Sofia). We had found another friend at the Fund who was also interested so Flannery joined us on our little adventure. These two museums are fairly well-known for some Spanish masterpieces and artists like Goya, El Greco, Velasquez, Picasso (all kind of a big deal!). We took the high-speed train, which I love because it’s only a 20 minute train right instead of a 50 minute bus ride. Pretty spectacular.
So we were within walking distance from the train station and got into the Reina Sofia without a problem, no lines, and it is free on Sundays from 10:30 to 2. So we looked around, but the most important thing there is the “Guernica”. This is a huge mural painted by Picasso during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) to remember the first ever…in the history of the world…time bombs were dropped on a civilian city. I have learned a lot about it in a lot of previous Spanish classes so it would pretty awesome to see it in real life. We saw some other stuff too, but not nearly as cool as the Guernica.
So we had some free time before the Prado opened up for free at 5, so we grabbed some lunch and were walking past the botanical gardens, we saw that it only cost 1 euro to walk through, so we thought it’d be worth it and paid the 1 euro. It was beautiful, I have not seen much plant life in Spain so far, so grass and flowers and trees were a very welcoming sight! I have some pretty awesome pictures from the garden.
Then it was time to go to the Prado, but first we waited in the LONGEST line ever. I was kind of tired already, and I’m not the kind of girl that reads every sign and analyzes every painting. Luckily the people at the Prado understand this and created a pamphlet of all the big masterpieces and where they were located. I recognized a few, so we checked them out. It’s just a very cool feeling to see the original piece of art after seeing so many pictures and replications of the piece. The highlight there was definitely “Las Meninas” by Velasquez. There’s quite a bit of symbolism in the piece (I won’t bore you with the details), but it was very cool to see.
Funny story for you, on the way home Jenn and I were just chatting and all of a sudden she asks me, “do you think I could be a flight attendant just in the summer?”. Jenn and I are both education majors. I guess it’d be pretty cool if you be a flight attendant part time, but I’m not quite sure where the idea came from? She was pretty worried that if there was extensive training she might not have time to do it. I guess you had to be there, but it was pretty funny and definitely made me laugh!
On Friday, Jenn and I also ventured over to la Juderia. That is the name for the Jewish section of Toledo. Toledo is named the city of three cultures, Jews, Christian, and Moors. We were in search of the El Greco exhibit which is temporarily relocated, but were unsuccessful. We found two other museums to check out...El Museo de Victorio Moncho (an artist/sculptor) and La Synagoza del Transito (a Jewish synagogue). It seriously felt like were a whole different city, the styles of buildings were different, the atmosphere was different, and we had a great view of the Tajo river that surrounds the city. We spent some time shopping around the city and then headed back to our own houses so I could get ready for Paula's birthday.Paula’s (my host sister) birthday was on Thursday. To celebrate she had 12 girls sleep over at the house on Friday night. Mind you, our house is a very nice size and fairly large for a Spanish house, but not for thirteen 10-year-old girls. It was chaos, but a lot of fun. I have included a video of the girls singing happy birthday. I went to bed with a pounding headache, but it was a lot of fun. My host mom made sure to remind me that I will have a classroom of kids someday and wondered if I was really up for the challenge!
I also bought a pumpkin here. Spaniards don’t really celebrate Halloween so pumpkins are hard to come by. Jenn and I took an adventure to find some pumpkins to carve and were successful! We haven’t had time to carve them yet, but I will post pictures as soon as I do. If you haven’t already figured out, Jenn and I take a lot of adventures here. Studying abroad has really made me broaden my horizons and be open to trying new things. I am so grateful for this.
I have also included a video of my host dad doing a little dance. He can be quite the clown, so for Paula’s birthday, he performed a little dance and song number after dinner. It was absolutely hysterical and just another reason I love my host dad! I hope you enjoy this as much as I do J
The videos are not working right now, so I'll try uploading them again soon. Sorry you'll just have to wait! :)
I think that should about cover my weekly update, I’m sure I missed some important things, as I always do. I really should write down my blog stories as the week goes on so I don’t forget them! Next weekend has Granada in store (hopefully). I will try to post pictures this week as soon as I have some free time and a little quicker internet connect at school.
Abrazos como siempre,
Amy
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