Being Legal

So I visited the police station today to finish up the process of getting my residency card. It was actually kind of a terrifying process, not because it was difficult or anything, but rather because Spain is incredibly bureaucratic.

According to people who live here, life is papers, papers, and more papers, and if you somehow need any sort of government document, you have to make sure that you have EVERY SINGLE form that you need, because if you're missing one, they will make you leave and not come back.

This was the penultimate step in a series of I-don't-know-how-many, and if I had forgotten something, it could have really delayed the process of getting my card, and could have potentially made me an illegal immigrant. Hence the terror.

However, all went well. They took my fingerprints and my pictures, along with the receipt for a fee that I paid on Tuesday and told me to come back in a month to retrieve my card. So now, I just have to wait.

La Huelga General

Today there was a general strike in Spain. From what I understand, general strikes are normally pretty short-lived things (24 hours), since it isn't just one union striking but rather, ALL OF THEM. It could be pretty paralyzing. For this particular strike, all of the unions got together and agreed that they were unhappy with a recent law that would cut government wages in order to balance the budget. (At least, I think that is what the law is about, and I think that is why they are mad.)

A general strike is normally a pretty spontaneous thing--the population gets about 48 hours notice and the country just stops for a day. This strike, however, was a little different in that they've been planning it for several months. So it had kind of lost a lot of its oomph. On top of that, the majority of the Spaniards that I have talked to never actually wanted a strike. The economy has affected a lot of people in a really bad way here and a lot of people just wanted to work and keep earning money, even if it was a little less than what they had earned before.

That doesn't mean that strike-y things didn't happen, because they totally did. The police were out in full force and the center of the city was packed. There are some pretty interesting pictures on El País which show the gravity of the situation, but here is one that I took this morning as I was walking to school.

That's an ATM that someone decided to vandalize, and it wasn't the only one that I saw this morning. I guess that someone thought that if people couldn't read the screen, they couldn't take out money and contribute to the capitalist conspiracy today. Of course, I think that most banks got right on it and cleaned the spray paint off pretty quickly, but it's a pretty blatant reminder that things still aren't quite right with the world.

Hamburguesas

Apparently Spanish children are the most obese in all of Europe. I learned that today in a magazine, and it actually doesn't surprise me. What IS surprising is that the adults are still so freaking skinny.

"But Spanish food is so healthy, right?" I hear you say. "Isn't it a part of the Mediterranean diet that all the doctors and nutritionists were recommending a few years back?" Wrong.

Spain may form a part of the border of the Mediterranean Sea, and its diet may share some characteristics with the Mediterranean diet (like a heavy reliance on olive oil), but in reality, Spaniards like their food much like Americans like theirs: fried, greasy and full of beef. I can't count the number of times that I have eaten some sort of fried meat while I've been here, not to mention the croquetas (croquettes--delicious fried chunks of béchamel sauce, cheese and ham...kind of like a mozzarella stick, but better. Not healthier, just better.)

And of course, the side of me that actually wanted to eat healthy in Spain died when a friend and I discovered this hamburger at a restaurant 10 minutes away from school. We go there on Tuesdays when we have a relatively short lunch break.

It has egg (over-easy), bacon, beef, lettuce and tomato, and maybe cheese. I don't normally eat eggs over-easy, but it is totally worth it for this burger. It might be the best hamburger that I have ever had in my entire life, which is saying something, because it's competing with buffalo burgers AND green chile cheeseburgers. And you KNOW it's good if it can compete with those.

On Picnics

The picnic is alive and well in Spain, in case you were a bit worried that it was dying a slow and painful death.

I'm not entirely sure when I last had a picnic (tailgates don't count), but yesterday I rediscovered how much fun they are during a 5-HOUR picnic in the Parque del Oeste with my intercambio, Laura, and a bunch of her friends.

(Intercambio is the Spanish term for a language exchange and a fun way to make new friends!)

There were bocadillos, and Tex-Mex Doritos (which basically taste like the Nacho Cheese ones), and homemade lemon cookies, and Pringles, and Fanta Naranja, and...and...sooo much food!

And then there were the games. We played soccer (kick the ball around the circle, not an actual game). We talked--some Spanish, some English, some Spanglish. And even though I said that a tailgate doesn't REALLY count as a picnic, there is at least one thing that they can have in common: FOOTBALL! That's right, even though we're in Spain and the whole wonderful, lovely and very, very American sport of football doesn't really exist here, someone brought a football to the tailgate--erm, I mean, picnic--today, and I was in heaven. We played catch for at least an hour or two. It might not have been that long, but I think it was. After all, it was a 5-HOUR PICNIC!

It was almost like being back home, at a K-State game, except instead of a parking lot, I was in a lovely, verdant green park, and instead of eating the Madre's delicious ribs, I had a bocadillo with tomato and tortilla española and a Fanta Naranja.

Thank God for football season!

PS: My Wildcats are 4-0! GO STATE!

31 days

So far, I have been in Madrid for exactly one month. Crazy. I'll let that sink in for a bit, for those of you who need it (ahem, mother)...

So far, in 31 days, I have not visited the Prado. I am very surprised by this, seeing as it is one of my most favorite museums in the world. However, I have visited a very interesting exhibition of early surrealist photographs, as well as a kind-of-schizofrenic exhibition at the Reina Sofia. So I haven't been neglecting museums as much as you might think.

Also, in 31 days, I have only visited the Retiro a handful of times. I blame it on the fact that I live in Argüelles, but mostly it's because I'm just plain lazy.

In 31 days, I have visited 4 libraries and several bookstores. I blame this on the fact that I am a student and books are my life.

Finally, in 31 days, I've probably drunk as many Fanta Naranjas and eaten half as many Magnum Doble Chocolate ice cream bars. Also, at 4 Maria cookies per breakfast, I've eaten well over 100. Not to mention the paella, gazpacho, tortilla española, pisto and croquetas that I've eaten. ¡Delicioso!

We Don't Need No Education!

• I would say that about 90% of Spanish children wear a uniform to school. 
• They look really adorable, and yet it's also disconcerting.
• Until I remind myself of the Catholic history of this country's school system and then it makes much more sense.
• I'm living in a country where there is little difference between public and parochial schools. 
• There are no school buses.
• Parents walk their children to school until they are old enough to walk it alone.
• It's really cute to watch this family time occur. 
• Given the times that I see children walking to school and leaving, I would say that school starts every day between 9 and 9:30 and lets out somewhere between 2:30 and 3:30.
• Does that seem like a short school day to you? It does to me.
• In contrast, I have school four days a week.
• Does that seem like a short school week to you? It doesn't to me.

Blue Suede Shoes

Elvis sure had something right. There's just something about blue suede shoes that makes them completely awesome. I have a pair of teal/turquoise ballet flats myself, and they don't seem to clash with anything. I mean, I'm sure there is something out there that clashes with my lovely, velvety teal shoes, but I just haven't found it yet.

Friend Aubrey tried to convince me not to take my favorite shoes with me to Spain. They are getting kind of worn (and I might have worn them in the rain/mud at one point, so they're really lookin' like they've been abused), but I refused to listen to her. Now, I'm glad I did, partly because they are super-comfortable, and partly because blue suede shoes are a great fashion statement.

Also because I just really like them.

In fact, I like blue shoes so much, that when my lovely JCrew flip-flops broke right when I was entering the metro stations (a good 10 minutes away from my house on sidewalks that might or might not have had broken glass on them), I decided to buy a new pair of sandals. Split-second decision caused by me being in a hurry and glass-strewn sidewalks, and 10 minutes later, I walk out in these.

And I have worn them practically every day since.

¡Futbolín!

I went out last Thursday night with Kenneth's friend Belen and her friends, Genevieve and Rafa. And at one of the bars we went to, there was an awesome foosball table.

Foosball in Spanish is futbolín, and boy is it sure fun to play, especially on really old-school tables.

Genevieve and I teamed up against Belen and Rafa, and I wouldn't say that we beat them handily, but we might have dominated each match.

I would place the cause of our dominance on our fierce game faces.

Belen and Rafa don't look nearly so fierce. You can never underestimate them, though. This is them scoring the first goal of the match.

They might have scored this goal because I was taking a picture of the game. I do not regret it because I came back with a goalie to goal kick that tied us up, so it was all good. And then we won the game. 

I wonder...

• Does the phrase: "Find a penny, pick it up and all the day, you'll have good luck," have any significance when you're dealing with 1¢ Euro coins? A Euro cent isn't exactly a penny, but does it have the same power over the status of my luck?

• If Don Quixote went crazy from reading too many books, then where does that leave all of the academics of the world? Is the ivory tower their personal windmill-giant?

• Why is Fanta Naranja soo good in Spain, while Fanta Orange is mediocre at best in the States? 
• Oh right, the whole sugar vs. HFCS/Orange juice vs. Natural flavoring dilemma.

• Apparently Spain has a smoking ban--not that I would have known by going to ANY restaurant in Madrid--but there it is. Also, apparently Madrid is going to add their own smoking ban to the country-wide law this January. Somehow I don't think it will change anything. 
• That's not a wondering. That's a statement of fact.

• If unemployment is so high in Spain, how come I see so many people out shopping?

La Noche en Blanco (Part III)

As a part of La Noche en Blanco, they city chooses a "Madrileñan of the Year". This year, they made masks to commemorate the dude. The masks were actually kind of creepy...but here's Christina and me with ours!

Like I said, a little bit creepy (ok, maybe more than a little bit). We even ended up participating in a big group people with a bunch of randos who all had the same mask. This whole urban-participation-thing is kind of weird sometimes.

La Noche en Blanco (Part II)

Perhaps my favorite part of the night was the very first thing we (Christina, Miguel, and I) saw: The ginormous Swatch-sponsored Twister board in the Plaza del Colon (or as they called it that night, Swister!). Look at it! Doesn't it look tripping?

Can't you hear the smooth sounds of "Relax!" playing in the background while Mugatu brainwashes Zoolander into killing the Prime Minister of Malaysia?

Once they let people on the mat, though, things got a little wild. Of course, most people were standing pretty close to their groups of friends, but then there would be big expanses of space in between groups, so it was fun to see how people dealt with their cramped space on what was not in any way a cramped board.

And of course, my favorite thing of the night was this:

This kid was running/rolling around all over the mat, and he was so funny that I just had to get a picture.

Oh yeah, that's right, when I saw that it's a city-wide street party, I mean it's a city-wide street party. Kids included. All night long. When I was going home at 1 AM (early, I know, but I wanted to make sure I got back before the metro shut down), there were several young children (like, under 5) out with their parents, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, getting ready to start the night. I know for a fact that when I was that age, there was no way on earth you were keeping me up past my bedtime. Flat out or out flat, man.

La Noche en Blanco (Part I)

White Nights are sort of a new-ish urban trend (begun in Paris in 2001, Madrid began theirs in 2005, according to Wikipedia). Basically, it's an all night street party for the entire city. They shut down the center to traffic and all sorts of museums and exhibitions are open to the public all night long, along with a lots of outdoor music.

This is The Gran Vía--all lit up and ready to party. 

We wandered by the Mexican Embassy, where they were showing what amounted to Mexican travel propaganda on the side of the building. It was all very dramatic and slo-mo-ey. Literally, every single shot for the 10 minute video (it felt like longer, but I'm just guessing here, so I'll give the videographer the benefit of the doubt) was in slow motion, with soaring dramatic music to go with it. I felt like I was watching the intro to a telenovela.

Also, I got to take my picture with people in Mexican traditional dress!

And we stopped at a self-serve fro-yo store to try it out, but their yogurt kind of tasted like cream, instead of, you know, yogurt, so I probs won't be going back. (also, a self-serve yogurt place doesn't have chocolate chip cookie dough. Who does that?). Still, we had fun eating it while chillin' in the Plaza Mayor. That's Christina greedily snarfing down hers above.

PS: Potentially my favorite story of the night was when we were entering the Plaza Mayor. The crowds were kind of overwhelming, but I noticed this one older-ish adolescent boy (maybe 17?) excitedly saying to his friends: "Americanas, Americanas!" I looked around me, and sure enough, there was this large pack of American girls talking about what they wanted to do next. I felt a little sorry for the kid because his excitement clearly stemmed from the thought that he could score it big with an American chick that night. He couldn't. Those girls were in a pack and they had some other dudes with them. They weren't really trusting the Madrid night scene just yet.

Where I Live

I live in Argüelles (Yeah--Spanish has those little doohickey accent things too), which is a neighborhood on the west-ish side of Madrid. It's a pretty family-ish neighborhood (I live right between two schools), and the people who live in Argüelles have basically lived there their whole life (Case-in-point, apparently Julio Iglesias, father of Enrique, lives right up the street, if I understand correctly from my señora).

It's still pretty central, but it's about as far away as you can get from the center and still have a (relatively) short metro ride.

Speaking of the metro, I absolutely love it. It's clean, it's fast, many of the lines have relatively new and spiffy trains that are really really pretty. And some people would say that it is a drawback that it closes at 1:30, but not me. It just forces me to get home and get to bed, which is always a good thing.

Here is my room:

This is my room in its 'dirty' state. That's right--This is my room before I picked it up. Take a good hard look at that level of neatness, because I'm hoping it's here to stay. I'm fairly positive that after this year in Spain, the days of me just tossing my stuff willy-nilly about my room will be gone for good. (or they'll come back with a vengeance. I'd say it's split 50-50).

This is my desk:

Again, this is my desk in its 'dirty' state. And this is normally what I would call clean! Maybe a little disorganized, but it's a temporary mess! Not like the permanent piles of paper that are stacked on my desk back home.

I really like the view out of my window. It's always nice to see some green in a super-crowded city.

And of course, the only bad (or good, depending on your viewpoint) aspect of my room is that it overlooks the street, which makes it really noisy. Especially since on that street are two bars (Madrid, Madrid and La Cubanismisa--you can see their signs right next to each other above) with people coming in and out all night long.

I should know, because I hear them all night long.

Lots of Light

My favorite part about my room is the window. It is really large and lets in LOTS of light. (It also lets in a ton of noise, but that's beside the point.) That's one of the striking differences between the States and here. Back home, when we say a window lets in lots of light, we don't (or at least I don't) actually think that that will be the light that I will be living by. I'm generally more concerned about the view. There are always plenty of lamps and indoor lighting that it never occurs to me that some people still actually live their lives by natural light.

But here, natural light is definitely the way to light up a room, mostly because it's free. Also, in the summer, since the sun goes down really late (at like 10), there's a lot of light to live by. I'm not really sure what is done in the winter--ask me in February.

But the other reason that I like my window so much is this:

That's right. The paint is peeling off the panes. That is probably not something that a normal person should like about a window, but I think that it gives my life a very bohemian vibe (and I mean that in a very literal way, like I should be living in the attic in La Boheme).

El Rastro

Last Sunday, Christina and I also went to Madrid local flea market, El Rastro. It's ginormous and they sell just about everything. I bought some cheap sunglasses, and Christina bought a surge protector, which should tell you just how varied the offerings were.

In case you can't tell, in the above picture, one stall is selling straight up cotton clothing, and the other is selling brass clown horns and other trinkets.

The one thing that we heard about El Rastro is that you want to go early to avoid the crowds (and pickpockets). So that is what we did. well, kind of. Even early, there are still crowds.

And of course, after all that walking we had done the day before, we decided to take a quick break and grab a merienda (to escape the heat and the, you guessed it, crowds). So we stopped at this little cafe, where Christina got a coffee with churros and I ordered a strawberry batido (the Spanish version of a milkshake). I had had a really good one the other day, and I was really craving one for some reason. Unfortunately, I got this (It's the Pepto-Bismol-ey looking thing at the back):

Also unfortunate was that it kind of tasted like what I would imagine Pepto-Bismol tastes like. Which is not a strawberry milkshake. Oh well, live and learn.

Paella and Things.

I love paella. It isn't actually a Spanish dish, so much as it is a Valencia dish, but still. It is delicious, and there are restaurants in Madrid where you can get it, and have I mentioned that it is delicious?

Last Saturday, Christina and I went walking (literally, we covered Madrid and were probably moving for at least 4 hours straight). We met up in the Chueca metro stop (we happened to be riding the same train when we got there, which I find super-coincidental), and made our way to a delicious little paella restaurant called, "La Paella de la Reina".  We had gazpacho, too, and it was all fantastic. Here are some pictures of Christina's paella plate and mine taken at approximately the same time during the meal:

Mine's the one on the right, in case you can't tell. And I might have helped Christina polish off the rest of hers. Afterwards, we were so full, that we felt like exploring, so explore we did. We wandered by Middlebury's campus in Madrid, walked down Paseo del Recoletos and down the Paseo del Prado, over to the Puerta del Sol, and up Calle del Preciados to Callao and Gran Vía.

On Preciados, we found this:

Twist is better, but the plain yogurt here clearly has more fat in it, which makes it super-tasty.

And on Gran Vía, we found this:

    

It's a restaurant named, "Nebraska", and its slogan is: "Enjoy yourself in Nebraska!"  It makes me wonder if any Spaniard has ever actually been to Nebraska.

La Biblioteca Nacional de España

For our first project for the Research Skills Workshop, we had to go to the National Library of Spain (which is actually quite close--just a few stops over on the metro), and get our library card and make some photocopies as proof that we were there.

It's super pretty on the outside, and yet, all I can think about when I go inside is: "Firestone's better." Clearly I am spoiled. And I will tell you why.

Spain does not have open-stack browsing. This is a national travesty.

If I need to borrow a book, I cannot check it out. I have to fill out a little card with the book's call number and info, wait for them to bring it to me, and then take notes about it at the little desk that they have assigned me. I can make photocopies (maybe), but there is no way that the original copy is ever leaving the building. Just ask the security guards. They rifle through all of the papers that you bring with you when you enter the building and again when you leave, just to make sure that you don't try to sneak anything in or out.

I understand this entire procedure if I were trying to access ancient archives--or even relatively old archives, like from the '70s (kidding!). But the book that I looked at was published in 2010. So there's really no reason to keep it under lock and key.

I've just decided that I'm going to try to avoid researching there as much as possible this semester, since I don't really have much time to waste waiting for someone to find a book for me. It's a good thing that most of my papers this semester are based on class readings. And then, next semester, when I actually have to do research, I will have hopefully found more patience for bureaucracy.

Still, it's an awfully pretty library, isn't it?

Classes

So I kind of love all of my classes this semester, and I will give you the run-down here:

Monday, 9:30 AM: Cultural History of Spain:

• Precisely the type of history that they don't let you study in school, since everyone is so obsessed with military/political history. I don't care about who won such and such battle or why. Just show me the pretty things they did to commemorate it. 

Monday, 4-7PM: Research Skillz Workshop:

• This one is actually every other Monday, which is nice, and it's helping us adjust to a whole new library system (which is not nearly as warm and cozy as the library system in the States--Thank you Dewey Decimal and all library science majors everywhere!). 
• No, they don't spell it with a 'z' in the syllabus, but I don't care.  I see that it is gangster, and I am very gangster myself.

Tuesday, 9:30 AM: Cultural History of Latin America:

• Like a Cultural History of Spain, except in Latin America. Also, Syncretism!
• Syncretism is the combination of opposing beliefs. It generally refers to combining opposing religious beliefs, such as happened in the Spanish colonies with Christianity and the various indigenous religions--which led to awesome paintings of the baby Jesus dressed up like an Incan. 

Tuesday, 11 AM: Cervantes:

• This class is potentially my favorite. Actually, I can already tell that it is my favorite. Why? Because we are reading Don Quijote (Parts I and II) in one semester and discussing. Also because Don Quijote is awesome. And because Cervantes was a genius. (He may have died bitter and alone, but that doesn't mean he wasn't a genius.) Also because Don Quijote is awesome. 
• One aspect of the Quijote which is kind of important to understand is that, when DQ sets off into the world, he is only doing so to prove that the real world is the same as the world about which he had read in all of his fairy-tale novels. Does this sound familiar to you? Because it kind of sounds familiar to me...

Tuesday, 12:30 AM: Teaching Spanish as a Second Language:

• It was either this or textual criticism, and although all of the technical pedagogical language kind of terrifies me (I think I just used pedagogical and I'm not even sure I know what it means...), it's kind of a nice break from all of the literature. Also, I think it will be helpful.

Wednesday and Thursday just repeat Monday and Tuesday (minus the Research Skillz Workshop), and then Thursday evening, I come home and go to sleep.

NYU in Madrid

The NYU in Madrid campus is two tiny houses (back-to-back) joined by a patio. Of course, the houses have been remodeled so that they serve quite well as offices and classrooms, but that doesn't mean that the space isn't pretty tight for the 100 or so people who are a part of this little expat community.

The patio is potentially my favorite place. I think that it is pretty much everyone's favorite place, since I can walk onto the patio and feel like I am back on a college campus (which is basically what it is). It's really quite a wonderful place to hang out, and I'm just sad that I won't be able to enjoy sitting out here all year 'round, since it actually gets cold in the winter in Madrid.

The graduate student welcome reception was potentially the most crowded that I have seen the patio. There were lots of hors d'oeuvres, tapas, and other delicious treats, and I think that at the moment I snapped this picture, one of the professors accidentally got her high heels wedged in the space between the teak slats. Whoopsies!

 But perhaps my favorite thing about the patio is this little demi-roof, quite low to the ground, where this little puppy dog was resting one day. I think that captures what a patio is all about.

NYU in Madrid...in Segovia

There are 24 people total in the NYU in Madrid Master's program--11 in the Lit. and Culture track and 13 in the translation track. Not all 11 of us were in Segovia, but of the 8 who were, here are 7:

Daniella, Me, Behnaz, Kaitlin, Kristin, Lindsey, and Mary Kate

Bookstores in Madrid

One of the best things about Madrid (for me, at least), is that the ginormous chain bookstore hasn't really caught on here yet. So I walk down the street and see a bookstore here and another there, and this little outdoor second-hand bookstore squeezed into a nook in an alley. 

It's going to be a pain to purchase my books for school because I'll probably have to run all over town, but that will just be an adventure!

Red Tile Roofs and Narrow Alleyways

SE-GO-VIA! (Part III)

I've kind of already talked about the Roman aqueduct, but I'm going to talk about it some more, because it is awesome.

2000 years old, built without mortar or concrete, and it's still going strong, transporting potable water into the city.  Anymore, it doesn't transport enough water for the needs of the citizens, but still, it still works, and I think that's amazing. Also, according to the little bio that I have, this aqueduct has even survived earthquakes (though I'm not sure where the nearest fault line is), which is even more impressive in my book.

That picture up there is where the arches are at their tallest (≈30m). This is what it looks like when you're under an arch:

The rocks are really big, and the arches are really tall, and it's really pretty awe-inspiring. Did I mention that those stones at the top don't have anything holding them together but gravity? (gulp)

More pretty pictures!

That's what I love about Segovia. It's a pretty little Spanish city, and then BAM! Ancient Rome.

SE-GO-VIA! (Part II)

The alcazar (castle) in Segovia is super pretty.  People say that Walt Disney based Cinderella Castle in Disney World on it, although I'm fairly positive that he probably based it on a combination of about 20 different castles from Europe, of which this is only one. 

It's located on a high cliff between two rivers (perfect strategic location), so there's probably been a castle here from the beginning of time, but this specific one dates from the reign of Ferdinand and Isabel in the late 1400s -early 1500s.

Isabel was kind of a baller. Since she was the Queen of Castile, she entered her marriage with Ferdinand with a lot of power, and she made sure that he knew that. They may have been the King and Queen of Spain, but he was never the King of Castile, and when she died, he had to leave the region. You know, since he no longer had any power there. Her death had the potential to break up Spain.

Normally, queen's thrones are slightly smaller than their male counterparts, but Isabel made sure that their thrones were the exact same height...to reflect their equal power...because she was awesome.

And here are some more pretty pictures of the outside, because I think it is pretty:

SE-GO-VIA!

Is currently my favorite city in Spain. I had forgotten how cool the old town wall and the Roman aqueduct are. Also, since it has the exact same vowels as Genovia (the fictional land where Princess Mia rules in The Princess Diaries), you can totally sing it to the Genovian National anthem! ahem. moving on.

This is the cathedral from afar, with all of its cool late Gothic spires. It's kind of ginormous and has a ton of different chapels lining the inside walls, like most cathedrals. Many of the chapels, however, are Baroque, since by the time they got to building them, the architectural styles had changed.

And this is the town wall, with someone's house built right on top of it. Segovia sums up Spain perfectly, with the old and the new built right next to each other.

Or, in the case of the plaza where the Roman aqueduct intersects the town wall, it's the old and the really really old built right next to each other.