First Day of Fall in Madrid

It's a quiet Friday afternoon in Madrid; the perfect time to fill everyone in on my adventures over here!

Honestly I do not have a whole lot to report, since school has started, we've really settled into a routine and we haven't had much of a chance to explore much.

However, last Saturday, as the last part of our orientation, Middlebury chartered a bus and we all drove to Segovia, one of the oldest cities in Madrid. It was absolutely beautiful and a great way to spend the day. Everyone is really embarrassed of the cathedral in Madrid because it looks really French, but the cathedral in Segovia was incredible. Here are a couple pictures, but I don't know if my phone's camera does it justice (really wish I had taken your camera, Pops). The style is called Gotica Florida, which basically means ornate and flowery and renaissancy. Everything was gold and massive and the organ would have made Kevin drool.

There were about 25 side rooms, each one with something like this or artwork.

Nothing makes me happier than a castle, and luckily for me, Segovia has probably Spain's most famous castle. It was the getaway of Isabel and Ferdinand, amongst others.

Also, it was partly the inspiration for the castle at Disneyworld.

Knight; throneroom.

Segovia also has the best preserved Roman aqueduct in the world because the desert climate allowed it to survive perfectly:

Segovia's famous traditional dish is "cochinillo", which is suckling pig. We split one amongst 6 of us. Pretty delish. I ate the kidney and the tongue. Decided to stay away from the nose, eyeballs, brain, and tail.


School is going pretty well, the teachers talk pretty slowly so everyone can understand them, and although the homework takes a lot longer to do since it's in Spanish, there is a lot less of it. One of my classes is called Spanish Art of the 20th Century and half of our classes is just going to famous museums and looking at art, so that's pretty cool. I probably wouldn't be making it to too many museums if not for the class.

One of the most fun, surprisingly, part of living alone has been cooking for myself every night. Last night I made Tortilla Española for everyone in my apartment. It's the most classic Spanish tapas, and I got rave reviews from the natives, so I was pretty happy with the turnout.

I hate that I'll be missing Vermont fall for the first time. Here it's just more heat and sun and dryness. I would kill for some mountains and rivers right about now. Abby had a couple hiking suggestions for me that I am definitely going to try out before too long. In the meantime, feel free to send me some pictures of some foliage or other fall-y things I'm missing out on!

Love you all! Talk soon!


Few more pictures:

City hall in Madrid.

Lake in the middle of Retiro Park where I run everyday.

In Plaza Mayor, one of the bigger and older squares of Madrid.

pretty in love with this little guy...

An update and pictures

Hello everyone, haven't had a chance to post in a while due to spotty internet at my hostal, but I finally have an apartment of my own! That process was pretty awful, we spent three days doing nothing except walking around in the incredibly hot sun trying to find apartments. Finally I found one, but I'm glad I waited, because I love what I ended up with. I have a big room in a great neighborhood and I'm living with three young Spanish guys, so my Spanish is going to improve a lot more than most of the other students who are living in student apartments with lots of people who don't speak Spanish very well.

On Sunday we went to our first bullfight. I was really excited for this, but once you're sitting there watching a confused bull get tortured and killed, its a little more difficult to stomach. I'm glad we went for the cultural experience, but I probably wont be going again. We were also really confused about what was happening the whole time, but everyone is really proud of their city and culture so they were more than happy to try to explain what was going on. Every bullfight goes through 6 bulls, and the same thing happens in the same order every time, so I didn't really understand what the excitement was all about, but the people here get very into it.

One good thing about doing so much apartment hunting is that I've gotten to see a lot of the city. Each neighborhood (barrio) has its own feel. Chueca, where our school is, is Madrid's gay neighborhood, so its got lots of alternative, hip places to eat and go out. Sol is the most central neighborhood with bustling nightlife and shops. I live in a barrio called Atocha. It's really nice, and its where the Prado is, as well the botanical gardens and the national congress.

Since school has not started yet, we've been going out at night and getting to know a lot of people. We already have a pretty big network of American students, especially from Duke and Richmond. None of us really have enough courage yet to befriend native Spaniards, but I'm sure as our language skills improve we'll branch out a little. The nightlife is very fun, most people don't go out til midnight or later and everything stays open til 5 or 6 or later.

School starts on Monday, we've been doing orientation and taking some placements tests. Getting back into the routine of school and having to face the fact that I'm not here on vacation is going to be difficult. But at the same time, living out of a suitcase has been stressful as well, and I'm really glad that I finally have a place to live and that my life will be getting back to normal.

Today we went on a walking tour with some helpers from the school. We saw the royal palace and cathedral and went to a huge park. Madrid is more or less a desert climate during the summer so the park is pretty much completely dead right now, but apparently its quite nice during the winter and spring. I forgot my phone so couldn't take any pictures.

It's siesta time here, but I'll write again soon. Love you all and thinking about you!

Some nice looking building.

John in front of some other nice looking building.

Bullfight.

My room.