Madrid!

Top 5 Things About Madrid:

1) No pigeons

2) Yemen "Princes"

3) Aqueduct (okay, that was in Segovia. oops.)

4) Museo del Prado with a great tour guide

5) Amazing weather

Kim and I met at a mall in Madrid after a bit of a stress: in short, imagine me attempting to use literally every payphone in the Madrid airport to try to get ahold of her (she was running late getting back from her day trip so our plans were changing). We are both struggling to get used to the European "no paso nada" attitude...but everything worked out fine. Then Kim took me to see Plaza Mayor (every Spanish city has a main plaza), and we got dinner at a Museo del Jamon (aka, Ham Museum). Apparently Spain is obsessed with ham because this is not actually a museum but a chain restaurant. I also had some ham flavored chips on Sunday which were surprisingly tasty. This is a picture of all of the ham legs (or is it pork legs?) hanging up at the restaurant.

We spent Saturday in Segovia, a small city to the north of Madrid.  The bus ride there was amazing because we got to drive through some snowcapped mountains, which of course I loved.

There we saw the Roman Aqueduct which was built in the latter part of the FIRST CENTURY! Can you believe it's still standing?

We also saw the cathedral, which was built in 1525 and was the last Gothic cathedral to be built in Spain.

Finally we saw the Alcazar of Segovia, a castle built in the 1100's. We also climbed to the top of its tower!

Then we headed back to Madrid, regrouped at Kim's apartment and headed out to dinner and to experience the city's legendary nightlife. We went to a delicious restaurant called Bazaar that was way cheaper than anything I've found in Paris. Good find, Kim!

The night started at El Tigre, a bar Kim and her friends like to go to because they have a) cheap drinks and b) free tapas. One of the other students from AU who is studying from Madrid is from Yemen and has an extremely wealthy family..they call him a prince. On Saturday night he splurged on a table for eight (300 euro...) at Kapital, a huge seven-floor club. It had a movie theater, a hip hop floor, a reggae-ton floor, the main floor played house/techno and had a huge thing that sprayed out cool mist every 10 minutes. Needless to say Kim did a great job showing me the nightlife because the entire night was totally free.

We were out until about 5:30 in the morning so Sunday morning we slept in a bit before heading to the Museo del Prado. Kim goes there for her Art History class every week so she had lots to say about all of the important works! It's always nice to see things that you actually recognize too, like Adoration of the Magi. The museum had lots of works by Spain's three most important painters: Goya, el Greco, and Velazquez.

To round out the day we had a picnic at El Retiro park.

Kim probably got pretty sick of me raving about the weather all weekend...lets just say it was great to see the sun and not have to wear a heavy coat! My flight was delayed about an hour leaving Madrid so I got home later than I would have liked, but it's Monday afternoon and I'm still going strong. Hopefully I can catch up on sleep tonight!

Differences

Here's a really great other picture from the guy performing where we picnic-ed on Saturday. This week's been pretty normal, and class at the Louvre yesterday was fun. It's always nice to have someone who can give you a little context come along with you (our professor), rather than just wandering around thinking, "oh, that's pretty!"

After the Louvre, a few of us went to Angelina's, where everyone told us we could get the best hot chocolate in Paris. By hot chocolate they essentially mean "hot chocolate cake batter," which sounds strange but is actually amazing! They bring you an empty mug, a little pitcher of hot chocolate, and a little bowl of real whipped cream-- no sugar added. Then you make your own hot chocolate concoction. I probably drank a day's worth of calories in about a half hour, but wow it was delicious and definitely worth a visit for any chocolate lovers out there! Especially for a pick-me-up if you are feeling all Louvre-d out (it's right down the street)

In other news.. here's a running list I've been keeping of some funny differences I've noticed between the U.S. and French culture:

• Bowls/mugs: Maybe it is just my family but on more than one occasion I have drank tea or coffee out of a bowl, and I have also drank carrot soup from a mug (sans spoon)
• Water usage: I haven't experienced this but some friend's host families have asked them to use only 2 minutes of water per day: you get in the shower, get wet all over in 1 minute, turn off the water and lather up, then turn the water back on and rinse off in 1 minute. Brr! Anyway, the contradiction to this is that they wash down the streets and sidewalks every single day here. Even if it's raining!
• Evian: a huge bottle of Evian cost me 50 cents the other day-- I thought it was funny since it is considered très chic in the U.S. to carry around Evian seeing as it costs like $3/bottle
• Dryers: out of the 16 of the students here from AU, only two of us have laundry dryers at our homestay! I know that utilities are more expensive here and so it's more economical to airdry things, but geez...clothes that have not been dried (especially jeans!) feel weird, and more importantly, fit terribly! I will definitely have a deep appreciation of dryers when I return. (Also FYI the washing machines here are about 1/2 the size of washers at home)
• Produce: since fresh fruits and veggies are much more expensive here, they are obsessed with only buying produce that is in season. My host-mom has given me several impromptu 'lessons' about what fruits and vegetables are in season, and in the kitchen of a friend's apartment is a chart that says what produce is in season at what times of the year. Literally, this topic has come up more in the past few weeks than it has in my entire life.
• Other languages: I just want to end with a very humbling thing I've been realizing the past few weeks. Pretty much everyone in my French class (as I've mentioned before, there are three Americans including myself, and people from all over Europe, Asia, and a few other places) knows at least one other language fluently. Many of them speak English quite well even though it's their second language, and then they are also taking French, and plenty of them know another language as well. It's because they start learning other languages as soon as they start school..this needs to catch on more in the U.S!

I am off to happy hour with friends and then it's time to study for tomorrow's test and pack for Madrid. I am excited to see how my English, Spanish, and French, all meld together this weekend...it will probably either result in a disaster, or miraculous wonderful Spanish skills. We'll see!

Le Soleil!

The past few days have been miraculous because THE SUN has finally decided to come and stay a while in Paris!  This is great not only because it's been cheering us up, but also because it means that in order to enjoy the afternoon, we don't have to pay 3+ euro to get a cup of coffee just so we have somewhere inside to sit, or go to museum upon museum upon museum.  

Yesterday after class and lunch, a few of us lounged in front of L'Hôtel de Ville to do some reading.  Our professor for the Paris Civilization & Culture class has a PhD in French literature, so the class is extremely reading intensive.  When mixed with the sun and people watching, the reading didn't seem so bad.  It was hard to believe that just 3 days before we'd been ice skating in that very spot: they were taking down the ice rink before our eyes.   

This week we have a class field trip on Wednesday instead of Thursday because the rooms we are visiting (French painters) are closed on Thursdays.  Thursday's tasks are to study for Friday's test, pack for Madrid, and book spring break stuff!  

Speaking of tests, I have finally gotten comfortable in my French class.  The first few weeks were challenging for me because the tests were full of surprises but I think I've figured out how to successfully prepare for them.  Also, we've been warned that professors in France are notoriously quite hard for the first few weeks as a way to motivate students.  I suppose one of the drawbacks of attending such a prestigious school is that the classes are HARD!  

Yesterday marked four weeks of being here.  I can't believe it.  There are still SO many things on my mental 'to-do list' which I haven't even begun to do, but I guess that is the beauty of being here for four months rather than a week-- you can do things as you please rather than cramming it all in.  Also, I've done a lot already that I never would have expected to do, and I'm sure there will be more of that in the weeks to come... 

Picnic!

Yesterday was the perfect day for a picnic.  It was sunny and only a little chilly.  Three girls and I headed to Montmartre armed with the fixings for a picnic.  We took the funicular up, which is kind of like an elevator which takes you up the hill if you are feeling too lazy to walk.  We hadn't done it before so that was fun!  

When we got up there what crossed my mind was, "wow, we are really unoriginal" because this is what we were greeted with:

Luckily, everyone was in good spirits and just out to enjoy the day.  There were some musicians playing old Beatles songs and it was great to sit, relax, and people watch.  We also had the pleasure of seeing Iya Traore, who describes himself as a 'football freestyler," perform.  This guy had skill!  I've never seen anyone so comfortable doing crazy things like handstands and climbing up poles with a soccer ball in tow! 

 

Last night before heading out, a few of us grabbed Thai food and experienced a really funny language barrier.  Ordering was really challenging because the server did not speak much French, and even though we had some pretty decent French speakers there, somehow we could not get across what we wanted.  The English > French > Thai barrier made for an amusing evening.  

Today was a lazy day and I mostly did homework because I have lots of reading for class on Tuesday.  I met up with some friends to wander around and grab dinner.  The best part of my day was finding out that the National Maritime Museum here has just opened a "Sailor chic in Paris" exhibit-- could it be any more fitting for me!?  I'm hoping to make it there this week but if not, it's until July so I must make it there before leaving.  

What I've been up to..

-Fondue (yum..Michael you will be proud of me that I did try one piece of beef)

-School, this is my class building

-Ice skating in front of the Hôtel de Ville

-Wandering around, this is the Saint-Eustache church which I've never heard of but we stumbled upon it last night

-On Friday nights the Louvre is open until 10, so yes I conquered some more of it before heading out last night!  

In other news, my busy schedule caught up with me yesterday when my 1 hour sieste somehow turned into a 4 hour nap!  It was a real challenge to emerge from that foggy, sleepy feeling afterwards.  Also, I just said au revoir to my 21 year old host sister who is leaving for her second semester in Korea today.  Now I am preparing to meet some friends for a picnic in Montmartre-- definitely one of my favorite spots.  

Hopefully tomorrow I will be planning what remains of my spring break trip!  The first week Mom, Dad and Michael will be here and after a few days in Paris we will be going to Brussels, Bruges, and Amsterdam.  Then my tentative plans are to meet up with a friend in Seville, then hit Granada and Barcelona.  I'm hoping to plan a weekend in the south of France in early May and if that works out, then I'll be visiting all of those places as well as Strasbourg (last weekend), Madrid (next weekend), Prague (March 13-15), Geneva & Interlaken (May), and day trips to Fontainebleau, Rouen & Giverny.  Sounds like more 4 hour naps are inevitable!