Madrid

I left Barcelona on a Thursday, and took the AVE to Madrid. The AVE is Spain's (new?) high speed train and it is absolutely wonderful. Each car had a mirrored LED screen that would show the time every few seconds. The highest I saw was 301 km/hr. Everything is just so nice and new. I'm taking the AVE back to Barcelona for Halloween, and I'm equally as excited about riding the train as I am about being in Barcelona. Is that sad?

So, Madrid was fun. I arrived at my hostel and the nice man at the front desk carried my deceptively heavy suitcase up to my room on the fourth floor. I then proceeded to use the free wi-fi (or wee-fee as they say here) in the lobby for about an hour and a half because I hadn't had unlimited internet since my arrival. I'm pretty sure everyone in the hostel thought I was so lame because they either saw me checking my email for hours or sneaking into my room with McDonald's. Anyways, after the internet, I decided to take a nap and wait for Jane's (a friend from UGA) arrival around 5 or 6 pm. I was near starving as I had only eaten a pack of oreos from the Barcelona train station that day. I took a nap, and decided still to wait out the hunger until Jane got there. After 3 hours and a frantic email to Jane asking if she was indeed alive, I decided I was going to die myself if I didn't leave for food. I walked out of the hostel and, fortuitously, was greeted by a taxi and Jane and Jane's luggage. We hauled everything upstairs and went in search of food with this Auburn guy (I know, Alabamians are everywhere I've decided) Jane met on the plane.

The next day we explored the Royal Palace and it's armory, which had amazing armored horses and one king's (I'm not sure which one?) impecably crafted armor. There must have been 150 suits for him alone, and many were absolutely beautiful. We had Thai for lunch and then wondered around the Parque de Buen Retiro, which was lovely.

first: the Royal Palace
second: Jane and me at the Royal Palace
third: a monument to the victims of the Madrid subway bombing in the Parque de Buen Retiro;
fourth: I'll have to look up the name of this one

Jane left the next morning and I moved to a single room in my hostel. I think I also tried on every jacket in all the Zara's I passed that day. Being the genius I am, I packed a summer wardrobe to live in northern Spain. It's something I'm still hating myself for today. The next few days and three nights were unremarkable. I did go to the Prado. It took me four hours to get through the top floor (I splurged on the automated tour guide), and I really enjoyed seeing the Velazquezes and Goyas more than I thought I would, but I had to leave because I was saturated. I ate McDonald's two nights in a row (you can't get food to go here) and watched all of the episodes of MadMen I had purchased in Birmingham. It's a good show. One of the days, I met up with Phillip's friend David, who is living in Madrid, for a walking mini-tour of the city and a huge, cheap steak. I also had Asian fusion and gelato with him the night before orientation started. Oh, and I went to the Reina Sofia at night, and I've decided that I really like going to museums at night. Guernica was there, as well as many of the preliminary prints and drawings for the painting. I'm beginning to be more and more fascinated by the Spanish Civil War. I'm about a third of the way through For Whom the Bell Tolls.

first: the Caixa Forum
second: glass elevators at the Reina Sofia
third: the Madrid Atocha train station near the Reina Sofia

After 3 nights alone in the city, I met Ben and Abby (they did the program last year in Logrono and are here for the second year) in the lobby of my hostel and Ben kindly carried my bag through the Madrid subway system, which is notably short of elevators and escalators. The hotel for orientation was nice. We dropped of our stuff and then a huge group went to lunch at another Thai restaurant (strange, no?) and then we wandered around for four hours in search of an American goods store at someone's request. I bought a Halloween Reese's cup once we finally found it. A Spanish woman in line in front of me spent 452 Euros on who even knows what. Halloween candy and pancake mix is what it looked like to me. Obviously there was more, but it was bizarre. Dinner was provided by the hotel and then a group went out for wine.

The next day was all about Spanish education and the program and really everything I hadn't even considered when I decided to come here. It was a bit overwhelming having all of the details of your visa and insurance information explained to you in rapid Spanish. That night, we met up with someone's friend who is living in Madrid and a bunch of people he knew and some Australians. It was delightful, and Phillip's friend David met up with us.

The next day, I rushed to check out by noon and then got pizza for lunch, and headed to the train station later in the afternoon. The train ride to Logrono about 3.5 hours and when we got there, it was dark. I was really excited to see what this place was going to be like. Spain in my mind had heretofore been Andalucia (which I've also never been to), so northern Spain was/still is mysterious to me. Rosa, this exceptionally kind woman who is a vice principal at one of the schools where I teach, picked me up from the train station. I cannot even explain how wonderful this woman is. Really, I can't.

My first night in Logrono was semi-miserable and I cried of homesickness for the first time since being in Spain. So I'll skip that. I'm headed to Burgos for two nights to visit other people in the program and begin my travels throughout Spain. Soon I will put up photos of my schools and Logrono, etc.