October update

Hello to everyone,
I think an update is long overdue.

The weekend after my last post, a bunch of us, as well as other Middlebury friends from around Europe, converged on Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest.
Here:

  This little guy is Aloisius, the angel of beer.

Munich is an incredible city and we had a really fun time. Oktoberfest is kind of like going to Field Days. Lots of people, lots of midway rides and greasy food. But instead of NASCAR tshirts, everyone is wearing leiderhosen. And there's lots of beer. That's all I'm going to say about that. (Except Bo, make sure you go to Oktoberfest when you're in college).

A few weeks later, a group of us stayed with my friends Nick and Bratner, who are studying in Paris for the semester.
Friday everyone went to the Louvre, but my flight was later so I missed out on that which I'm pretty bummed about. But the next day we went to Musee d'Orsay, the French version of MOMA (sort of). I'm taking a class about modern European art, so it was really cool to see a bunch of Monets, Manets, Van Goghs, etc. that we've been talking about, and pretend to know what I'm talking about.

Afterwards we went to huge open air wine festival on the Montmarte, a big hill that overlooks all of Paris. It was rainy and cold, but it was really gorgeous. It's basically the only neighborhood left that wasn't ruined by the Nazis, so its the last of old Paris. I felt pretty French eating a foie gras sandwhich and sipping wine, and got this picture of the Eiffel Tower which I think is pretty cool:

We also had a French street artist do this caricature of us, which is arguably the worst likeness of any of us. In case you were wondering, I am apparently the third from the left.

Arc de Triomphe at night.

For my birthday weekend I went to Prague. I got to see a bunch of Middlebury friends once again, as well as my good high school friend Michael Kellner who is studying there as well.
Prague is such a fun city and I had excellent hosts. We spent all Saturday walking around in the snow (so great to finally see snow!) seeing Prague castle, Charles Bridge, the Lennon wall, the Astronomical clock and all the beautiful architecture, and at night, we went out to a traditional Czech restaurant for my birthday.
Some pictures:

A view of Charles bridge, built in 1357. It was too cold and snowy, but normally the bridge is packed with vendors and entertainers.

The famous astronomical clock, not a very good view of the details, Google it if you want to learn more. Every hour a man at the top of the tower plays a trumpet and a bunch of the figures on the clock start to move. Very cool, especially for a clock built in 1410.

Prague castle in the snow.

A section of the Lennon wall, a big wall that began as a place where students would graffiti anti-Soviet art. The Soviets would whitewash it time after time, but it would just keep getting covered. Now it serves as a monument to John Lennon. It still gets painted over periodically, but just so that the art can change all the time.

One of many statues on the Charles bridge. Thought it looked kind of cool in the snow.

 Snow covered Prague from the tower of the Astronomical Clock, with Prague castle in the background.

Back at home things have been pretty slow, with tons of schoolwork all the time. As I'm sure you've read, there have been lots of protests in Madrid against austerity measures and such. Congress is three blocks from my apartment, so I get a firsthand view of the protests. Our professors have explained that people here love protesting more than anything, and even when times are good, people grab whistles and signs and take to the street for really petty things. It's part of the routine here, and if the subway isn't closed down at least 2 days a month because of striking union workers, it's a strange month. But I'm perfectly safe, the protests rarely turn violent, despite what I'm sure the news over there has chosen to show.

We had an adorable kitty for a week, but when I was in Paris he disappeared. When I asked what happened to it, my roommates explained that it got sick, and rather than getting medicine for it, decided to just give it away. All that sleeping, eating, playing video games, and not looking for jobs must have really gotten in the way of taking care of it.

I hope everyone is safe and sound as Hurricane Sandy makes its way north. From what it sounds like, Marley and Grady and Ken and Lauren have the most to worry about in NYC, but I'm sure everyone's taking care of themselves. Thinking of all of you, be safe.

Lots of love always,
Connor

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.

hola!

hello to everyone from Madrid!

I've got some down time so I figured I'd fill you all in on my first few days in my new home.

Madrid is just lovely, I wish I had some pictures for you, but I'm not very good about that yet. Right now I'm living in a hostel with Forrest. We'll be living here for a few more days until we find apartments to live in. It's quite nice, we have our own bathroom and TV and fridge, which I stocked today with sandwich supplies and orange juice, etc. so we don't have to buy lunch every day. Our hostel is two doors away from the school I'll be going to, so chances are my apartment will be somewhere in the vicinity as well. It is right in the middle of Madrid.

Madrid is a very old city with narrow streets and alleyways and city squares every few blocks. We are a 5 minute walk from two of the biggest squares, "el Plaza Mayor" y "el Plaza del Sol". Streets shoot off of each of these in every direction and are filled with bars, restaurants, and shops. The nightlife is always very lively, but the first night we were here there was a game between Real Madrid and Barcelona (the two best soccer teams in Spain, and probably the world, and HUGE rivals) in Madrid, so the city was a bit crazy. Madrid won and everyone was driving around in the streets honking horns and waving flags. It was a great way to get thrown into the local culture.

Right now there are 5 of us from Middlebury here, with more and more arriving every day. Nobody knows where we should be going to see cool stuff, so we're all just kind of figuring stuff out as we go. Most people, and everyone over the age of 40, do not speak English, so we're being forced to speak a lot of Spanish, which is good, but also really hard. It makes everyday tasks like getting groceries or finding a bank seem really daunting.

It gets very hot here during the day, so from 2 to 5 everyone goes on a long lunch/ nap ("una siesta") and all the shops shut down. It means the night begins a lot later, but there is a really nice breeze during the night and I'm definitely going to like the schedule here.

Tomorrow were spending the day at a huge park near my hostel and then next week I start orientation.

I'll write again soon, can't wait to hear from everyone, I'm feeling pretty homesick right now.
Love you all!

A wonderful day at Pre-K!

Today was a great day in Northwestern Pre-K. We were all very busy being artists, putting on puppet shows, building cities with blocks, and cutting up magazines. 

In math we talked about the color red and sorted objects from a magic bag into piles of red and not red.

In reading we read "Go Away Big Green Monster!" and then we made our own Big Green Monsters.  Aren't they wonderful?? 

As the days go on we are adding all kinds of beautiful things to our Northwestern Museum of Fine Art.

Today was also a good day because little Ariana tapped me on the shoulder and said, "I luh you Ms. Ross." I luh you too, Ariana.
And I also luh all of you!

Would you like a comb? I mean some orange juice?

"Ms. Ross you should comb your hair it's gettin all nappy."

I can always count on my Prepsters for honesty.
I know I owe you all a really long blog post updating you on school! It will be coming soon, I promise.
Love you all!