Rabbit Parade

2006-03-31T18:30:00.000+02:00

Just a quick post with some pictures. The Palace / Plaza de Oriente / Building on Gran Via / Pitis / out my bedroom window

Mahou/Cards/Classes/Africa

2006-02-18T17:42:00.000+01:00

Monday through Wednesday were spent deliberating which classes to take. Initially I was signed up for spanish grammar and fundamental aspects of spanish art (in English) on Monday and Wednesday. But of course what you think you want at first is not really what you want until you get what you then thought you wanted and realize that what you had a first might have been better but now its too late so you just have to be happy with what you have and make the best of it, which is really what you should have done in the first place. In the end Sabrina and I somehow ended up convincing our very reluctant advisor to let us take Arte y civilizacion which is for speakers a level ahead of us and is taught all in Spanish. I’ll let you know how this works out. The Spanish dictionary is going to be my best friend for the next 4 months, also smiling and nodding.

It's starting to warm up here, slowly. When the sun comes out in the afternoon it feels so great. There is a humongous park by my school that always makes me think of an African safari. The trees are distrubited sporadically but semi-uniformly throughout the park and are the kind of tries that are really tall but don't have any foilage except for at the top. Like a lanky seventeen year old who has no body hair but rocks the fro. Anyway, I'd really love to make some life size elephants and giraffes out of cardboard or something and place them randomly throughout the park. I think it might throw some people off. Maybe not the old men who play cards every day around 11am...I have a feeling they'd understand perfectly.

Cardboard African animals or no, once it starts to warm up the park will be awesome for picnics and running and general people watching. The other day when I was walking into my school there were about 8 Spanish students sitting on the wall outside of my school playing cards and drinking a 40 of Mahou which is their common draft beer. I think it was around 11 am. I think I'm beginning to see a pattern... I'll have to somehow find a way to infilitrate one of these two park social circles or maybe even both (motivational point number one: don't underestimate your potential). I've started to accumulate Spanish native phone numbers but I haven't really used any of them yet. I think sometime later this week I may call one of the girls to get coffee or something, or maybe i won't. I'm terrible at those sorts of things, I always manage to find some way of putting it off. This also works well for me with exercise.

I met a girl ,Montse, at a bar the other night who was telling me about the hiring process here in Spain. She said that all employers care about is your performance in school. Basically extra curriculars and leadership roles don't matter at all, all that matters is your grade point average. I wonder if this is an effective system or not. Obviously intelligence is important but there are some really dumb people who work there asses off for high gpa's and also there are people who are really smart who just don't do well in school. How many successful entrepreneurs never even finished college or highschool for that matter? Also the average wage here is so low in comparison to the cost of living. Montse was saying how the cost of living has been shooting up but there haven't been any attempts to up the wage. Something will have to change there. Also I can't really find articles about it on the web, maybe i'm not looking hard enough.

Tomorrow I will book a trip to Morocco and go to the Reina Sofia (Madrid's modern art museum).

Post Revival

2006-02-06T15:50:00.000+01:00

Putting off blogging ends up being more challenging then I expect it to. But I will try and dig into my memory of the past month for as many interesting tidbits I can provide you with.

I am slowly getting better at orienting myself in the city. Plazas serve as good landmarks and there are a manageable number of them, maybe 10 main ones. The metro is getting easier and easier to use and I’ve started to realize how close together the stops are. Essentially Madrid is becoming more accessible than I initially thought it was. There are only a few main roads, although the city is predominantly comprised of a lot of small side streets, which lack any type of pattern or organization. Nevertheless nothing in the main city center area is too far to walk and I’ve found that if you walk for long enough you will eventually find where you are going. Plus that’s way more exciting than riding through underground tunnels with nothing to look at through the window but a black wall. I guess the metro would be the easiest way to get where you’re going the fastest but 1. Who really wants to rush through everything, not Madrileños and 2. It’s impossible to learn the city streets when you end up at your destination every time. What I should really do is find myself a bike and hop on that. At first everyone discouraged this idea because of the crazy drivers, but I’ve started to see more people on bikes, including little BMX bikes, mountain bikes and town bikes. I honestly think that people don’t really ride their bikes here because the idea just hasn’t occurred to them. In any case, I haven’t seen one bike store yet although I have found a bike rental company but its overpriced and very touristy.

In other news, my intensive Spanish class is finished and it has inspired me to continue my efforts in the Spanish language. I will be starting my Specific Problems in Spanish Grammar class tomorrow along with Fundamental Aspects of Spanish Art. Hopefully neither of the two will disappoint me. I’ve discovered a great coffee shop/bar/used American bookstore that is owned by two ex-patriots hailing from the U.S. It’s a cozy place that is more of a pub than a café. All the bartenders speak both English and Spanish and they host intercambio nights on Wednesdays and Thursdays along with a quiz night on Fridays and Mexican night on Mondays. The intercambios are great because they provide a forum for you to speak Spanish no matter what your level. Everyone there is eager to learn either English or Spanish so they are happy to overlook your grammatical and pronunciation errors, or kindly correct you. Everyone is really nice and every time we’ve gone there we’ve ended up going out afterwards with other people from the bar. Its nice when you start to have places that you like to frequent whether it be a bar, a park, a café, or a disco. I’m definitely starting to feel more comfortable here, but I do ache for a little Gainseville every now and then.

I haven’t decided yet how I feel about the anonymity of a large city. I love walking out of my house in Gainesville know that no matter which direction I go in, its likely I will run into someone I know. Of course if you live in a certain are of a city for a long time, this will start to develop as well, but nevertheless once you leave that comfort zone you don’t really know anyone, and no one knows you. It’s kind of an overwhelming feeling when you think of how many people there are in this world and the eensy weensy amount of them that you actually know. Of course there is the six degrees of separation thing but who really knows about all that. Ever since I was younger I always dreamed about my perfect flat, I think that this is still something that I want, but its starting to dawn on me that not only will I need some sort of substantial income, but also maybe I don’t want to be in NY or Philadelphia. I always feel so much pressure to make decisions or be meticulous about spending habits or know where I want to be/go etc. It can really be a downer sometimes. Action is really what it’s about, yes planning is important but if you can’t put your endless amounts of plans into action then they’re essentially worthless……

I went food shopping yesterday with Megan. I’m starting to know what foods I prefer although I’m still not exactly thrilled by anything here, not that I really am in the US, I guess I just know what I like there and here I haven’t quite figured that out yet. Croquetas which are basically fried mashed potato balls are pretty popular among my roomates although I’ve really only had them once or twice when they were really good (both in restaurants). I do however like tortilla española, which is eggs and potatoes and onions mixed together, and then I guess you could broil it but I don’t think you necessarily have to. You can eat it either as a pincho (slice) usually comes with a roll or some sort of bread or on a bocadillo (popular sandwich that is one or two things between a sliced baguette). Hot chocolate is another interesting food here, they’re form of hot chocolate is essentially melted chocolate in a mug that you just drink straight. Usually it comes in different flavors like strawberry or orange or mint or something along those lines. I haven’t ordered a cup myself yet but I have tried others. It’s rich, but of course very good. It’s even better when you dip churros in it. The Spanish definitely know how to do sweets.

I guess I’m rambling a little bit but I think that’s mainly because I don’t feel fully satisfied with this entry. I think I’ll try to update more often from now on. Procrastination will be my downfall, that or inaction—they’re very much related though. Okay so bye then.

2006-01-16T14:28:00.000+01:00

It all started about eleven days ago when I landed at Barajas airport in Madrid. After meeting a few people from my program, I was driven to my new apartment. There are 12 people living in this two story 'townhouse'. We have heat, two microwaves, and a pool--quite luxurious compared to my house in Gainesville. Megan and I are fortunate enough to have our own bathroom, although it would be perfectly fine if we didn't. There are 7 Americans living in the house (all fantastic people from UF), there is one Japanese person (he also hails from UF), a girl from South Korea, two boys from Spain, one from Ecuador, and one from Mexico. We all get along excellently although there needs to be more language swapping. This is more than can be said for some of my fellow programees. The general stereotype of study abroad kids is that they're parents essential pay for them to come party on someone elses turf because they're not old enough to do it legally in their own country. Stereotypes are this for a reason.--I mean seriously, who wants cafe when they can have a Heineken at school! In between classes! At 9:30 in the morning! I mean seriously, dude!--I think I'll sit as far away from you as physically possible. Oh and did I mention Americans are loud and obnoxious. If you're going to be in a foreign country for 5 months it might help you to learn a little bit about their culture, or at least take note of it when you arrive.--Generally there is minimal conversation on the metro. If there is, people are respectful of others and keep their voices low...across the crowded metro car Heineken kid finds it necesarry to yell this, "Dude, do you want to go workout after this?"-- Awesome, totally awesome. I accidentally on purpose said I can't stand that kid very loud the other day, I was hoping he would hear me but it didn't work. I might have to be a little more direct next time. Is that so bad? I don't think so, I'd prefer not to be represented by him when he acts like a moron (often). Moving on...my school is about 10 minutes away. The trip there is a mix of walking and bussing. I would love to ride a bike but I don't have one. If I do get one it will probably take me three times as long to get there because it is pretty much all uphill. Plus its pretty cold right now. I like to think that I have northern blood but truth be told I have gotten pretty used to the Florida sun. Right now school here is 4 hours of 'intensive spanish' a day. The classes are very small and I speak more spanish than the teachers speak English. This is a good thing but if there is a word I don't know its difficult to get a precise translation, but I learn more when they define it for me in Spanish so I'm fine with it. Classes start at 8:30 Monday, Wednesday and Friday and 10:00 on Tuesday and Thursday. They finish at 1 and 2 respectively, in time for lunch and a short siesta. During 2 and 5 the majority of the shops and restaurants in Madrid close for the siesta. At first Gabby, Sabrina and I were having difficulty getting our supermarket shopping timing right and after 4 tries, we forced ourselves to get on Spain time and have since adjusted quite well. At the supermarket, the food and drink seem a little less expensive than in the states. For example, Jack Daniels costs about 14.90 here which according to XE.com is about $18.05 which is about five dollars cheaper than in the US, but I'm still adjusting to currency conversion so I'll let you know how my bank account looks on January 31st. However, this is only the case at the supermarket. At the bar it costs me about 9 euros for a single drink and I've had to coax the bartender more than once into being a little bit more generous. But, now that I've splurged on the 15 euro bottle, I won't have to worry about this anymore. Open containers were outlawed in Madrid in March of 2002 because so many people were complaining about young people partying in the streets and parks but the practice has continued and you pretty much just get a slap on the wrist for it. Needless to say I won't be spending money in the bars very much here--it's expensive and unnecesarry. As far as food goes, Spanish people love love love Jamon (ham). There is even a popular restaurant called Museo de Jamon (ham museum). While daydreaming the other day at the supermarket I suddenly realized I was surrounded by Jamon hanging midair all around me. Similar to this--
There's just something about toddler sized meat everywhere you look that just kind of turns you off. Don't get me wrong, I have been trying all types of food here including meat dishes in order to "fully experience the culture" but to be honest, I've been dying for a more vegetable oriented meal. I've yet to find one. Mostly the food is kind of simple and relatively boring but I'll let you know more about that once I've tried the Paella. This past weekend we visited Segovia where they like to eat cochinillo, basically they like to eat Piglet. I'm good, thanks though. Segovia is known for its well preserved Roman aqueduct which was pretty amazing. Constructed 2000 years ago solely with rocks, no mortar or cement or anything, by the Romans, it still works. It's towers over you at 30 meters high (about 100 feet). I also learned a little bit about Romantic and Gothic architecture. We visited two different churches, one Romantic and one Gothic. They were both really cool although the Gothic one was slightly more awe inspiring because of its size and detail. The Romantic one was still very beautiful and very very old. We also visited the 'Alcazar' castle in Segovia which was the inspiration for Walt Disney's sleeping beauty. Its where Isabela the Catholic granted Christopher Colombus permission and funds for his 'East Indies' exploration. Within Madrid I've visited the Prado once but only had time to catch the highlights--Greco, Goya, and Velasquez. I'll definitely be back there at least one more time, but probably more. Here are some pictures of my trip so far.

mis companeros (roomates)

las chicas

Segovia with roman aqueduct in the background

shinichi and I in Segovia

sabbie and I on top of the castle in Segovia

Gabby and I

Megan and I