El año sin Halloween

Halloween is one of my most favorite holidays, and this year I'm missing it.

Not that they don't have Halloween here in Spain, but it has a distinctly different vibe to it. Whereas back home there are haunted houses, costume parades/contests, and decorations for the whole month of October in preparation, Halloween here is mostly an excuse to wear a costume when you go clubbing. There was a story on the news tonight showing grade-school kids in their costumes and decorating pumpkins, and I think they go trick-or-treating, but there are remarkably few reminders that the holiday is 2 days away.

It is sort of depressing because of how much I enjoy getting in the spirit of Halloween. Honestly, when else can you put on bloody make-up in order to make little children scream in terror, and NOT be arrested for it? I also throughly enjoy seeing the creativity that others put into their costumes. Last year I saw both a LEGO man and a guy with a playable NES strapped to his chest, it was awesome. Those "wow" moments when you are throughly shocked and excited by another person's costume are part of the fun of the holiday and why I love to dress up.

In local news, I went to the Prado art museum today because it is free in the evenings. The works showcased there are absolutely incredible. I am usually not a fan of art museums because I generally don't care what the artist has to say, but the painting at the Prado just pop stunningly off of their canvases.

Tomorrow I am taking a day-trip with my art class to Cordoba to see the Great Mosque there. It is supposed to have extremely beautiful architecture and I just hope that the weather is nice so that I can take good photos.

T es para "té"

And tea is for me.

Every Tuesday and Thursday I have a 3 hour break in-between my classes during which I have to eat lunch and commute between campuses. However, this doesn't remotely fill the time, so I spend a lot of it at the large public park, el Parque de Retiro. It is incredibly relaxing to walk around on the many paths, lie on the grass, or have a bite to eat at the cafe.

Back in the States I am always running around to get to another appointment, whether it be class, choir, swing dance, or homework, it is difficult to find free time. And when I do have time to relax, it usually doesn't line up with when my friends are available. Here it is nice to just be able to sit with friends, drink coffee or tea, and have a conversation with each other.

One of the sentiments shared by many of the other students traveling with me is that it will be incredibly difficult to adjust to the hurried pace of life and especially the rushed schedule of DePaul. I want to be able to simply sit outside (not during the winter, of course) sipping on tea and not worrying about my next assignment or how I will find time to spend with my overworked friends.

My friends at DePaul call the little moments of relaxation they have "Sanity Time" because it helps to keep them sane amidst the stress and pressures of school, but when I return, I just want to call those times when I can relax "Everyday Life."

Felicitación. Esta historia es el final feliz.

Congratulation indeed. I didn't die after all.

This weekend excursion to the city of Cuenca was amazing. We departed from Madrid via bus early Friday morning and arrived aproximately 2 1/2 hours later. We began by visiting a local park and went on a hike among the rock formations. It was incredible and I was reminded of my time in the Boy Scouts. Much fun was had by everyone as we climbed all over the rocks.

After that, we checked into the hotel (which used to be a monastery) and ate lunch. The food was great (ham of course) and the restaurant was very fancy; I had one glass of red wine and one of white wine (preferred the white.)

Afterwards, we took a tour of Cuenca and visited both the Cuenca Cathedral and the Museum of Abstract Art. The cathedral was absolutely beautiful and because the sun was setting it made the stained glass shine brilliantly. The art museum was also fun, although many of the other students very vocal about their distaste. My favorite room was the "white room" which had four windows which captured the nearby cliffs as if they were paintings.

The next morning we awoke to extreme cold. As noted by one of the girls on the trip, it was the first time year that we could see our breath. There was concern amongst us that the cold would put a damper on the days' activities: horseback riding and cliff-jumping. By the time we arrived at the adventure base to pick up our horses/wet-suits the sun had risen higher as well as our spirits. I squeezed into a wet-suit and we took a short drive to the river.

The water was, predictably, freezing cold, and although the wet-suit protected me somewhat, water was still able to seep in especially near my hands. Our two guides started us off by having us hop off small rocks and slide down short rapids to get a handle on it. After each jump we floated downstream to the next one where we climbed out at jumped again. Soon, though, we were leaping off rocks ranging between 25-40ft in height. Honestly, it was terrifying, and I had to psych myself up for a couple of seconds before each of the jumps. I would not say that it was dangerous though. I don't like heights and I don't like being cold, but the river canyon was absolutely gorgeous. Had it been a stifling summer day, I think that I would have enjoyed it better, but by the end I was shaking uncontrollably and happy to get back to dry clothes.

By and large and all in all, I had a wonderful time in Cuenca. The city is beautiful, the landscape is breathtaking, the river-sports are insane, and I would love to return one day.

Mañana procrastinar

It's been a couple of days since my last post, so I guess I should write one now...

This past weekend a group of us went to a jazz club here in the city. It was incredible (if a bit too smoky.) The music reminded me of some of the songs I dance blues to back in Chicago and I really wanted to just grab a girl and start dancing. Unfortunately 1) it was not a dance club, and 2) I do not know if anyone at the club even knew how to dance blues. I really want to go dancing here to show off my Chicago-skills and to pick up a few Madrid-moves, but I have no idea where to go or who would want to go with me (one of the reasons to go social dancing is to socialize, after all.)

I also went to the National Museum of Natural Sciences hoping to see some dinosaur skeletons, but to my severe disappointment that gallery was closed. I got to peek past the construction wall and I saw that they had an impressive collection, but I was still frustrated because I couldn't see them up close.

Otherwise I've just been wasting too much time not doing homework (sorry Mom and Dad) but fortunately tomorrow is a national holiday so we don't have any classes and I can try to get it done then.

This upcoming weekend we are traveling to Cuenca and I am going to go cliff-diving. If I die, I want it in my will that all my friends and family have to each eat a pinecone.

My Schedule

Some of you have been asking for my weekly class schedule to know when the best time to chat/skype. Here it is with both the local time with Chicago time in parenthesis. As a reminder, Spain is seven* hours ahead of Chicago, so when it is noon here it is 5 in the morning in Chicago, and when it is noon in Chicago it is 7 in the evening here.

*I am not sure if daylight savings time will throw this number off.

MONDAY

3:00-5:00 (8:00-10:00) Written Comprehension and Expression

5:00-7:00 (10:00-12:00) Oral Comprehension and Expression

TUESDAY

10:00-12:00 (3:00-5:00) Art and Architecture in Medieval Spain

3:00-5:00 (8:00-10:00) Grammar and Practice

WEDNESDAY

3:00-5:00 (8:00-10:00) Oral Comprehension and Expression

THURSDAY

10:00-12:00 (3:00-5:00) Art and Architecture in Medieval Spain

3:00-5:00 (8:00-10:00) Grammar and Practice

FRIDAY

3:00-5:00 (8:00-10:00) Written Comprehension and Expression

In addition, I'll give you the times we eat here in Spain.

BREAKFAST

8:00 (1:00) Usually just 2 pieces of toast with butter, jelly, and fruit juice. Honestly, not the best way to start the morning.

LUNCH

2:00 (4:00) The biggest meal of the day. My favorite so far was the paella, but one of my roommates hates seafood so I doubt we'll be getting it again. Sadness!

DINNER

9:00 (2:00) Similar in size to lunch back in the States. In my opinion it is served much too late because my stomach is eating itself by the time dinner rolls around.

Volver al punto de partida

It is back to square one with me, now that I have officially forgotten how to speak Spanish.

Well, not exactly, but that's how I felt when my first Spanish class at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Complutense University of Madrid) began this afternoon. We started with the basics, the easiest verb tense, present indicative (I run, you cook, we talk, etc.) and I quickly realized just how out of shape my tongue really is with the language. It refuses to pronounce the syllables correctly and I sound like I'm trying to talk with a mouthful of food.

Additionally, my professor is both relatable and terrifying at the same time. She wants us to refer to her in the 2nd person familiar, but she began today by listing off the rules of what we absolutely must not do in her class. It also didn't help that I was unprepared for the first day because I wasn't able to pick up my ID card, which the professors use to take attendance and to remember the students' names. Afterwards, I had a flashback to my first Spanish class during my freshman year of high school. Back then I was just as intimidated when I realized that Spanish did not exactly flow out of me.

I am optimistic about it though. I think that it'll just take a little bit of time to get settled into speaking and thinking about the language. Until then, I look forward to more classes tomorrow and getting to know the foreign students in my class.

La ciudad de Madrid

I'm getting more acquainted with the city of Madrid.

Every day now I've gone out to a different place and gotten to know the city just a little bit more each time. I went to el Parque del Retiro on the metro again today and I everything on the train is a reminder of how much I hate taking the El back in Chicago. Compared to the El, the metro is cleaner, faster, more reliable, and there are significantly fewer sketchy people riding it.

Orientation is tomorrow, which I am actually grateful for because I am searching for a sense of community here. One of the things I miss most about DePaul are the close bonds that I forged there, and with those now severed for the quarter, I have to find my place again with a whole new group of people. I particularly miss going to mass at St. Vincent's because was there where the community came together strongest. I went to mass for the first time here by myself and it was completely different. I will probably try to find a group of people who can go to mass together in order to preserve the communal experience.

Lastly, I just want everyone to know that I think about you all often and miss you tons. Please, feel free to message me on Facebook chat or call me on Skype.

Es peligroso ir solo

It is dangerous to explore a foreign city alone, so I went with friends.

The past two days I explored the city with my roommates, Ian and Julian, as well as other students from DePaul. I started off by walking to some of the plazas and doing some window shopping. There is a store here called El Corte Inglés (literally, The English Cut) which is the big store here in Spain. And it really is big, we went to their department store and it was seven stories tall, then across the street there was a Corte Inglés music/DVD shop and down the street was a Corte Inglés fútbol store.

That night, a large group of us from DePaul went out to dance. Let's just say that the club scene isn't my scene. I prefer to go social dancing or stay in rather than be packed into a lung-rottingly-smoky bar infested with creepy guys who are following the girls in our group and offering them drinks.

Today was a better day though. We went to el Parque Retiro, the huge park near to downtown, to spend the afternoon. We began by renting rowboats and rowed around the large man-made lake in the park, this was followed by a casual stroll through the gardens. One interesting thing that we noted was that rollerblading seemed to be much more popular here than back in Chicago. Not only were there people skating for recreation, but there were classes being taught to adults as well as children and they appeared to be preforming routines as a group. Because the park is so big we planned to visit it again soon in order to travel all over it's sprawling pathways.