Hace frío!

(The view from El Torre del Alcázar in Segovia, Spain)

Well, it is ridiculously cold here.  I walked outside this morning and it could have been snowing.  So while I came to Spain to get away from the cold weather, it seems to have followed me. Blurgh!  

Yesterday, I tried to wear a pair of shoes that weren't my flip-flops; I deeply regretted this decision.  And because of the various battle-wounds my feet sustained after yesterday's valiant attempt, during today's freezing weather, I could only wear my flip-flops.  At least they were waterproof and resisted all the rain I walked through. . .

So for tomorrow, the plan is to find and buy shoes.  This is more difficult than you would think, as the stores in Madrid are very boutique-y and expensive and one of my fears in life is pushy sales-people, especially pushy sales-people speaking only Spanish.  But Amanda, Lizzie, and I have officially scheduled a day of shopping tomorrow at a mall near here, so hopefully somewhere in its 300 stores, I will find a decent pair of shoes.

I had a fantastic lunch today - pasta salad with shrimp, cheese, and some sort of Spanish vegetable that I have yet to identify.  My friends usually only get a ham and cheese sandwich, and my friend, Lindsay's, host-mother packs her cookies pasted together with butter.  We've been trying to figure out this strange combination, and Lindsay thinks it's part of her host-family's strategy to "fatten her up like a Christmas ham."

The door at Barclay's beat me up today.  I went to exchange some US money for euros at their branch near Julia's apartment.  I walked in, apparently after hours, and the only guy in the place told me I'd have to come back tomorrow.  I turned and was simply trying to leave with my dignity, but I managed to embarrass myself in the entry-hall between their two sets of double doors, as well.  I now know that you have to let the first door close before the second door will open, but I was unaware of this useful tidbit this afternoon, so I was pushing and pulling on the second door to no avail.  Then Mr. Come-Back-Tomorrow said to wait for the first door to close, and when it did, the second door popped open and scraped my thumb.  Then I had to walk in the cold, with beaten-up feet and an injured finger, back to Julia's.  I think I will go to a different bank tomorrow.

But on the plus side, I have already finished all my homework for the weekend and only have a few pages of an Economics article left.  In my opinion, the Carlos III idea of homework is really much better than that of BC and I hope this general mentality of not-wasting-your-free-time-with-work continues.

Mejor Español!

(A house near El Palacio de La Granja in San Ildefonso, Spain)

Sorry I didn't post yesterday.  I took a Benadryl and then pretty much passed out. . .

Yesterday I felt really good about my Spanish as several people told me I'm improving.  That's a relief - it's about time.  I also got back from classes early so I decided to go on a walk around Julia's neighborhood.  I walked down a street called Paseo de Habana, and then was slightly lost, but found Paseo de Castellana pretty easily, which is the main street in Madrid, so that took care of that.  I wandered past the soccer stadium at Santiago Bernabeu, mostly waiting to see if any lovely soccer players were wandering about, but I didn't see any likely candidates.  I wandered a little further towards central Madrid, but then had to turn around and come back for dinner.  Julia and I chatted for probably an hour and a half, so that was nice.  I found out she does a lot of knitting and cross-stitching, so I tried to bring up the subject of quilting.  But horror upon horror - there is no word for quilting in Spanish!!  I looked in my dictionary and online - I even showed her some pictures of mom's quilts from the website - nada!  Quite appalling!!

I was very proud of myself today because I helped a person with directions in Spanish.  As some of you may know, I am often lost.  But apparently, I look as though I know where I'm going, because I get asked for directions a lot, (people just don't understand the danger this might cause - I once sent some kids looking for "the Garden" to Boston Commons - whoops).  But today I was in the metro station and some fellow babbled at me in Spanish, but I caught enough words to know that he wanted to go to Sol.  I actually responded (in Spanish) with correct directions and he seemed to understand me.  Hence my being very proud of myself.

Also, my economics class was really interesting today.  The professor put five words up on the board (wind, cannons, property rights, climate, and diseases) and we had to figure out, in groups, why each of these words contributed to Europe's economic growth.  Now they weren't as simple as you would think, and it turned into quite the puzzle.  For example, the answer to the second riddle wasn't that Europe had good cannons and won wars.  It was that Europe knew that you needed a perfectly-sized cannon-ball for the cannon to work (too big, it explodes, too small, it just drops).  This technology led to the development of steam engine pistons (the pistons need to be the exact right size in order to work), and it was Europe's steam engines that fueled the Industrial Revolution.  Fascinating.  There was extra credit for the group that figured out the most, and my group tied with Germans.  Pretty darn good, I'd say.

And while "Beedle el Bardo," is slow going, I think it will help a lot with improving my Spanish.  For each story, I have to look up every other word the first time through, but the second time through is a lot easier.  Plus, by the end, I'll have quite a bit of magic vocabulary up my sleeve, so I'll be able to whip that out whenever needed. . .

Perdido en Las Pyrenees

(Tiles in Segovia, Spain)

More classes today!  I had Spanish, which was good.  We learned about tatuajes y piercings (tattoos and piercings), so I guess if I need to strike up a conversation with Julia about either of those topics, I will be covered. . .  

Then I wandered on over to the bookstore with a girl from my Spanish class to get the book we need for the class (the only book I need to buy this semester - a nice change from the $700 I spend on books at BC each semester).  I also bought these nifty plastic envelope things that people use here instead of binders (I really do love school supplies). 

My other purchase was "Los Cuentos de Beedle el Bardo" by J.K. Rowling.  Now I know this may normally be below my reading level, but seeing as it is in Spanish, it is really quite advanced.  Here's my strategy: first, finish reading "The Spy Went Dancing" in english.  Second, read "Los Cuentos de Beedle el Bardo" in spanish.  Third, read a more difficult book in spanish that I have already read in english (I'm thinking "Angels and Demons").  Fourth, well, I guess I should wait and see if I get past Beedle el Bardo. . . But I think it will be more productive for me to try and read in spanish than just watch TV in spanish, because I will remember the words better if I see them.  So that's the plan.

My second and last class of the day was Economics - I sat next to a girl named Lily from Singapore.  The actual professor was back today, and looks younger than I do, but he seems really nice.  Interesting story: he apologized for his appearance (shorts and a T-shirt) and said that he needed to feel comfortable in his clothes today because yesterday he was lost in the Pyrenees mountains and was ultimately rescued by a helicopter.  I'm not even making this up to make my life sound more interesting.  We were told he was at a economics conference, so I'm not sure how he managed to get lost in the Pyrenees, but he seemed pretty frazzled by the whole experience.

After class, the BC kids stayed to ask him if we could take the final early, as the test is scheduled for January 14th.  We were all pretty nervous about it, because other kids have been getting turned down left and right, (which means they will have to drive to BC on their test date, take the test under the administration of BC staff, and fax the test back to Spain.  Not only is this really inconvenient, but I know I would forget everything about a class I haven't taken for a month!) Luckily, he said we could take the final early, which is a huge relief.  He also said we could hand in our final papers early, as well, or take the extra time if we need it.  Yay for economics!

I have officially bought a roundtrip plane ticket to Lisbon, Portugal for the third weekend in October.  The ticket was only 47 euros and people seem to love Lisbon, so I jumped at the chance.  I e-mailed the info to a couple of friends, and I've started to hear back from them already, so it's shaping up to be a pretty good trip.

I have already finished my homework - 200 words about what we do if we were invisible for a day (mine involved reading the secret archives in D.C. and then sitting on the stage for a broadway performance of Wicked in NYC), so now I think I will attempt to read a page of "Beedle el Bardo."  I'll report back.

Más fotografías!

I have also added more pictures to the Shutterfly site.  There are a few more at the end of the first album, and I've added a new album for the pictures of Segovia.

Here's the link: http://gigiinmadrid.shutterfly.com

Enjoy!

Un día aburrida

(Madrileños enjoying their city)

Because of my cold, I haven't moved from my room all day, so I've been watching TV in Spanish, trying to improve my language comprehension.  The hardest part for me about Spanish is understanding when other people speak, so I figure keeping the TV on might help after a while.  A lot of the TV shows here are American, with Spanish dubbed over, and I watched Switch with the voices not following the mouths.  There is also a commercial for El Corte Ingles that has Habanera as background music (my senior year NYSSMA vocal solo). Each time it plays I'm tempted to whip out my opera, but I think that might alarm Julia a bit.  I've watched the news, the sports channel, Fama (a dance competition), and am currently on the Spanish Amazing Race.  It's been a pretty productive day.

Besides TV, I've read more of my book and an article for my Economics class about the rise and fall of the economic giants: the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and US.  Not too bad, actually.

Because of the lack of tissues in Julia's house, I've been using toilet paper for my runny nose.  I've gone through about three rolls, and have had to go riffling through closets for more.  I have had to start preserving as I think we are nearly out.

I showed all my Shutterfly pictures to Julia today, and we chatted for a while about them.  She was alarmed when she saw the picture of my keys, because now she thinks someone is going to break into the house, but I'm pretty sure she was only joking.  Here's a situation when that language comprehension is important. . .

Segovia

(The Catedral de Segovia in Segovia, Spain)

Today I went to Segovia.  On purpose, too.

I got a call from Lizzie last night that a bunch of people were meeting up to go out, but that they were also going to meet at the bus station by 9:45 am this morning for a day-trip to Segovia.  I figured that since I needed to be beautiful for all the pictures taken in Segovia, I had better sleep rather than go out dancing, (not really, I was exhausted and too lazy to get dressed and make the hour trip to Sol).  So I told Lizzie I wasn't going and crawled into bed.

Considering it usually takes me about an hour to get anywhere, I left Julia's at about 8:45 am, (leaving her a note that I was off to Segovia for the day).  Of course, this time, the trip only took about half an hour, but as trained by my mother, I had my book with me, so this wasn't a problem.  I met up with the group (there were about 20 of us BC students) and we got our 13 euro bus tickets to Segovia.  I sat with Elise on the bus ride there (about an hour).

Thankfully, one guy, Pat, decided to take the lead and had pretty much planned out our whole day.  We were quite the tourists, all 20 of us walking around, and Pat shouting out history facts about buildings while we snapped pictures.  The first thing we saw were the aqueducts, for which Segovia is famous.  I've always been amazed by such things, so that was really cool, and I took about 30 pictures there alone (I'll narrow it down for your viewing ease).  Next we wandered through the town (really historic with classic architecture) and a church, and to the main plaza, when many of us decided we needed to eat.  After sitting down at a pretty fancy restaurant, we left after one look at the prices on the menu, and some of us ended up at sit-down sandwich shop.  I ordered a baguette (a sandwich on a baguette, aptly named) with omelet con jamon, queso, y pimientos (eggs, ham, cheese, and peppers).  Yes, that's right.  It was an omelet on a baguette. It was really good and I was quite satisfied with my choice.

All of us then strolled on over to the Catedral de Segovia, this huge romantic-style cathedral.  Only Lizzie, Christine, Don, and I paid to go in, but it was worth it.  The place was huge and I always like to take a gander at the organs in big churches like that.  They also had some huge books of Gregorian chants on display, so I illegally took some pictures of those.

Next we went to El Alcázar, a castle, turned prison, turned museum.  The rooms were gorgeous and most of us paid extra to climb up el torre, or the tower.  There were 152 steps to the top, but these weren't your ordinary steps.  They were a good double or triple the height of normal stairs, and of course, it was a spiral staircase.  Therefore, when we were climbing and there were other people going down the stairs, we got pushed to the narrow part of the stair, and it is no easy feat to climb gigantic stairs when you have hardly anything to hold onto (and when you're really dizzy).  We were all nearly passed out by the time we reached the top.  The views of the city were amazing, though, and you could see the Spanish landscape for miles.  Segovia's altitude is pretty high up, so it was cooler than in Madrid, but also very dry.  The landscape was almost completely golden and desert-like.

We slumped back down the stairs (which going down seemed much more slippery than when going up. . .) and headed back to the bus station to get a quick ride over to La Granja, (or the gardens) to see a fountain show.  There is this huge palace (which we think was modeled after Versailles by a french fry who missed France). Unfortunately, we only had about 45 minutes there and the fountains had no water in them (or so I hear, I didn't even get to the fountains - I spent the whole time in the gardens).  We ran back to the bus past all these schmancied-up people (it seems there was some big event happening at La Granja) and headed back to Segovia.

Some people wanted to leave early (those who stayed out the night before and were running on only 2 hours of sleep) so they took an early bus back to Madrid, while the rest of us headed to the third-best bakery in Spain (makes you want to know where number two and one are, huh?  No fears, I'm on it. . .).  The pasteleria is called Limón y Menta, and I got a cream-filled, rolled-dough, almond-encrusted thing and a cinnamon and sugar marzipan-covered delectibility.  The second is one of Segovia's specialties and I tasted pumpkin in it, but everyone just gave me weird looks, so maybe my cold is throwing off my taste buds.  We ate in the gazebo of la Plaza Mayor de Segovia, which turned out really well, as this weekend was apparently military-band weekend.  Lots of European bands and gun-twirlers (I'm sure they have a more specific name) were performing all day, so that was nifty to see.  We went off souvenir shopping, and when we came back, there was a wedding letting out, and a traditional dance performance was given for the newlyweds.  I think there were more tourists watching than people in the wedding party.

We wandered to the bus station a back way, looking at some of the neighborhoods and sights of Segovia and taking still more pictures.  While many parts of Segovia are very touristy, most of it has retained its historical merit and Segovia is a real Spanish city.  I'm also really glad that there are planners in our group who will put together trips like this.  Vacationing is a lot easier when someone has a plan.

We nabbed seats on the 9 pm bus back to Madrid, and although some of them are going out tonight, your's truly is going to pass out from exhaustion.  Good night, all.

Un día real

(Me in front of El Palacio Real in Madrid, Spain)

Lizzie and I decided to go to El Palacio Real today, so we met up and got there at about 3:30.  We signed up for a tour, (which was tricky, the ticket man really only spoke Spanish, but we succeeded) but had an hour to kill before our group started.  There is this huge gated area in front of El Palacio, so we wandered around there, being tourists and taking our pictures in front of everything.  Plus, both Lizzie and I are very picky about how we look in pictures, so we usually end up with 4 or 5 each of the same shot.  Lizzie's phone rang in the middle of one of our photo shoots, and she started to talking to someone on the phone.  I was thinking how jealous I was of her that she spoke such good Spanish, but then I realized that she was speaking to her mother in Korean.  Hmm. . .

Our tour started and in an hour we went through only this tiny section of the palace.  The place is huge!  Our tourguide was a little lackluster - he spoke so quietly we couldn't hear him without his microphone and he spoke mostly about all the things that came from France.  He had a French accent, so maybe that had something to do with it.  But the rooms were really elaborate with fancy frescos, portraits by Goya, silver-embroidered wallpaper, and lots of plaster work.  One of the coolest things was this table that looked as though it had a really intricate painted design.  But it was actually a mosaic, with really tiny pieces.  We also saw 5 Stradivarius instruments - 2 violins, 2 cellos, and 1 viola, so that was nifty.  Our tour guide said one of the cellos is among the best instruments in the world.  Unfortunately, El Palacio Real does not allow photography, so you'll have to look up pictures yourself.

Afterwards, Lizzie and I went and toured through the gardens in the back of El Palacio, which was really nice and then we went to Vips, a popular Spanish restaurant.  We both got ice cream and I also ordered the "juice of the season."  The waiter came with our order, and my "juice of the season" was two oranges on a plate.  I waited for him to bring out a juicer or something, but he never did, so I just ate the oranges (which taste kind of funky with a brownie sundae).  I'm not sure exactly what happened -  apparently, I can't even read the English menu. . .

We then went back to the park next to La Plaza de España (the one with a statue of Don Quixote and Sancho, if you are familiar) because I needed a picture to send to the editor of globalpost.com.  I had Lizzie stand next to random groups of madrileños so I could pretend I was taking her picture when I was really being quite the stalker and accumulating a collection of madrileño pictures.  I'm sure that's how they do it at National Geographic, too.

So those cookies, Marbú Doradas, are my new animal crackers.  They are wonderful little things, and I've already plowed through the first box, (I stopped to get more on my way back to Julia's).  The best part (or worst part, depends on your angle) is that I have no idea how to read the nutrition facts in Spanish, so I have no idea how big a serving size is.  I should probably assume it's not half the box, but who am I to judge?

Julia and I had shrimp and green bean paella for dinner tonight.  It was my first paella, and I really liked it!  Even the shrimp!  It was one of my favorite dinners in Madrid so far, so that was exciting.  During dinner, I mentioned wanting to interview Aline, Countess of the Romanones, for a future globalpost.com article and I think Julia said that one of her sisters is friends with the Contessa.  I said, for heaven's sake, why haven't you mentioned this before?!  So who knows, maybe I will be meeting some royalty.  

Then Julia and I watched the news.  Well, she watched the news, I looked at the pictures.  From what I could gather, the Spanish princesses Sofia and Leonor had their first day of school today.  Also, Barcelona is protesting something and burning flags and what-not, so maybe that's not the best place to vacation anytime soon.  Got to get to Sol now,  my friends insist on being social. . .