Who's there?

Me: I'm going to put this on the internet and make a comment about Charles V's knockers.
Simon: These aren't knockers.
Me: You be quiet.


I think it is safe to say that my Spanish has began its decline, as I spend all day with the family and mostly use Spanish to order in restaurants. Looking back, I'm saddened I could never build a double-entendre, even a crude one, in Spanish.

Who was that mustachioed man?

Best fountain ever.

Wish you were here

I traveled very little outside of Madrid during the quarter, and I wondered if that was the right choice for me. And, yes, it definitely was.

I don't like being a tourist. A number 1, it makes me cranky.
More importantly, it is just not a good way to travel. You can do tourism many different ways, but I feel like its all about seeing things. It doesn't matter what country the things are in.

My dad photocopied some pages for me out of his book "1000 Things to See Before You Die" and there are 1000 (and obviously more) AMAZING things in the world.
I also want to see books called "1000 Ways to Celebrate", "1000 Fantastic Gastronomic Traditions to Try", "1000 Things You Take For Granted, But You Should Go Without Here", "1000 Amazing Traditions in Hospitality", "1000 Things That Are Illegal in the US, But Not Here", etc. Maybe not titled exactly like these.

For me the beauty is in different cultures and wisdoms you can learn, beyond what you can see.

Anyway, I'm glad I really chose to LIVE in Madrid and I'm glad that I'm traveling now because I get to see these cool things:(Toledo and Toledo)

(Granada, Granada, and Granada) (Love you, oxford comma)

Merry Christmas from Spain.

Likely the least Jewish picture I have ever taken.

Enjoy your today and tomorrow and the day after that etc.

You're it

I've added tags to all of my old posts now. I know it will make a big difference in your user experience.

I'm back in Madrid now, but I will still show you this picture from Barcelona:

Barcelona definitely has better graffiti than Madrid. It seemed, overall, a younger, more cosmopolitan city.

Longest Way Round Is the Shortest Way Home

I started out this blog and my trip to Spain a short (and at the same time, really long) three months ago with this in mind:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
TS Eliot

This idea is not new or anything, but I thought of my trip as a spiral staircase -- going towards a greater understanding, but maybe not really changing my position. TS Eliot said it better. Anyway, this has already proven true! Kind of. Remember this picture I posted a few weeks ago, in an end of quarter homework rush?It bears a strong resemblance to this picture I took right before I left for Spain. It is all the books that I failed to read this summer.(Beloved and the one below it are really my mother's)

Maybe this is more a sign of my habit of stacking books than of any real ascent on the staircase. But I find myself in the same places, beginning to imagine what life in Cape Town will be like, just like 3 months ago I couldn't fathom Madrid.
I can say that I think I've learned a lot about myself and my position in the world through being here, although I can't say that anything has really changed. I would say at the least that I feel older and that I can sort of understand a Spanish sort of logic, a different way of processing information. (At the very least, the idea of 9 to 5 seems disgusting now. Its all about 9-2 /4-7 (or really 9-14/16-19))

Gaudy does not come from Gaudí

Here I am in Barcelona! And I'm 21! Joy all around!

Today we went around to lots of Gaudí things and they were all amazing.

There was a book about Gaudí in Ms Messinger's room at Gunn, and ever since I looked through it in 10th grade I've been waiting to go see his stuff in person. And it did not disappoint.

Parc Güell:Rooftop at Casa Mila/Pedrera (this double name thing is unnecessarily confusing)Sagrada Familia!
Apparently they just finished the inside a couple of months ago, and it is incredible. I was thinking, "Man, this God guy must be really great to have people make all this." This picture fails entirely to capture it.
Detail on the outside (dove and stars)The family was being adorable:
Old men play bocce ball outside of the Sagrada Familia. Oh, Europe. I'm gonna miss you.
If you know any trivia about Gaudí, you know that he was killed crossing the street in Barcelona. After a couple days here I can tell you this does not surprise me.

Grotesque Shmrotesque

I was reviewing all of my pictures from Spain (because I only have 20 days left in Spain and all of that will be spent tourist-style, traveling around, which is not the same. I write this from a hotel room!).
Anyway, I noticed a trend in my pictures of strange gargoyle like creatures. So apparently I have an affinity for gargoyles. Good for me and you to know, given the whole t-1 day till my birthday thing.

Here you go:
Burgos, Comillas, Sevilla, Dominican center in Madrid.


ps. You know what frustrates me? Slow hotel internet! At this second I am only trying to download 8 podcasts, one Awl post, one tumblr, and this blog upload-y picture business. They will be limiting my internet bandwidth in Cape Town. I might die.

Special opportunities

You want to watch a fifteen minute blurry video of my flamenco class performing? Yeah, you do.

NO DO

I went to Sevilla! It is very pretty and I took almost no pictures of the pretty.

I took these from inside the Giralda (what was a minaret, but when the Catholics came they built a cathedral where the mosque had been and made it into a bell tower)

We saw lots of beautiful old buildings and a flamenco show! This was also my first real time staying in a hostel and I felt very much like a 20 year old American traveling in Europe, which is not entirely a bad thing.

My love/hate relationship with the metro continues

I'm sorry about my internet-absence. I've been busy.



I love that it discriminates against tall people. Its some sort of revenge for overhead compartments on planes and the top grocery shelf.


In the hate column, last week I was in the station late and the escalators had been turned off so I was walking up them and I tripped (as I do so often) and cut my knee on the sharp, spiky escalator steps. And then I bled profusely.


In other Madrid metro news, look at this video of one of my nightmares:



The scariest part, by far, is when everyone turns around and covers their eyes. Why is that?

Countdown

Happy December! This is a very exciting month for me:

0 days until Hannukah (Janucá in Spanish)
9 days until the end of the program
11 days until my mom and my brother come to Madrid
13 days until my I turn twenty one!
21 days until my dad comes to Madrid
23 days until Christmas
30 days until Noche Vieja (New years eve is "old night" in Spanish.)
31 days until I get on a plane for South Africa
32 days until I get to South Africa!

Let it... no.

It snowed yesterday!
My first reaction was "Oh, how delightful! Like a snowglobe!"
Second: "Oh my god, what am I going to wear?!" But, really, what do people wear in the snow? (me to my mom: Do they use umbrellas? Her: That depends, how hard is it snowing? Me: I have no idea)
Third reaction: Unnecessary video documentation.
I've never felt more like a Californian.

Pay no attention to those books behind the curtain

Lest you think Madrid is all pasterlerías and shopping, this is a real picture from my desk. I wrote maybe 7 pages in Spanish this weekend, and I'm going to have to write some 17 more in the next week or so.

Things I never thought I would get used to

1)Smelling like smoke.
2)Sitting down on a seat in the metro and finding it warm from the previous occupant. (Actually a delightful experience in the cold)
3)Eating lunch at 4pm (if getting used to means learning to eat a snack every day)

Boo

This is a photo from where I work.


You all in the US have vacation right now and I do not. I give this situation a big thumbs down.

I am so smart

As you fashion fans may be aware, today was the big day for the Lanvin hearts H&M collection. In Madrid (and I assume everyother one of the 200 H&M stores carrying the line), the store opened at 8am and you had to be in line by like 4am to get a special wristband that would let you in for a 15 minute period later. I was going to try and line up for the spectacle (and Lanvin!), but I decided it wasn't worth the lack of sleep.

Around 1pm I was doing my regular old round of the shops between the Stanford Institute and home and I stopped by H&M and saw that there was a whole section separated with fencing and guards and very little Lanvin left. It appeared you still needed a bracelet to enter. Then, being the crafty shopper that I am, I went downstairs to the men's section where there was lots of delightful Lanvin menswear and no hubub.

I bought this man's shirt in a large for 20 euro! Its a perfect t-shirt dress and has sparkly jewel eyes. So, basically, I win. (I think I came out a little angry in the photo, but I am not! I was trying to get all of the shirt/dress in.)

Bing!

I've mostly dry and entirely-terroist attack free from Basque Country. Good for you and for me.

I took photos on the trip. These are some of them.

We went to the Guggenheim Bilbao!We stayed in hotels! The weather was not as bad as it had threatened to be!We went to San Sebastian! It was beautiful!
They eat these things in San Sebastian. They are called pinchos and they are awesome.

We went to a vineyard/bodega/wine museum/winetasting.

My camera died before the Bing dinner. It was also delicious. (The dinner, not the camera)

Now that I am back with the homework and whatnot, the official end-of-Spain is approaching faster than ever, complete with thousands of Spanish words to write.

Simply look around and view it

This is my new favorite pasteleria. It's in between my house and the Stanford center, a win for my stomach and a definite loss for my wallet.
You can't really appreciate it without Smell-o-internet. Why does that not exist? Get on it, Stanford.

Tomorrow morning (8:30AM! The horrors!) we're headed off to the north for wine tasting and fancy dinner and rain. (Typing that reminded me to pack my umbrella, which reminded me that I left it at work. Shoot.) We're not supposed to reveal the itinerary, but I will show you random, inconsequential things from the trip when I get back. And I will try to stay dry, I guess.

Just call me Alvy

So my neuroses have become more evident to me in Spain because
1) I keep getting told "No pasa nada" which means literally, "Nothing happens"or basically, "It's fine, you'll be OK, for god's sake stop worrying about it"
2) I end up by myself a lot in my room or on the metro or the street or what not and it's just me and myself in my head. We sound far too much like Woody Allen.

Oh my god Becky

Every week or so I have a reason to walk through el Plaza de Colon and I always see this delightful statue of a curvaceous woman lying on her stomach and I think, "You go girl".
So this weekend when Emily and I decided to go to el Museo de Libro I told her we should meet by the statue so she could take a picture of me and I could put it here.
As I was waiting for her by the statue I saw 7 or 8 tourists stop and take pictures with the lady, which I found utterly demoralizing. I like to think that I live here, that I am not a tourist.
Emily still took the picture for me but I want you all to know that I have a relationship with this lady. I am not some random Italian tourist coming up and putting my hand on her behind.

Make it work

This couple on the street is WORKING IT.

In other important news:
I have muscular calves (we're going to blame it on ballet). While I have no body issues with my calves it makes shopping for boots extra difficult because size 6 boots have very small calf spaces.
I think I still have a welt on my finger from pulling on boot zippers yesterday. In the end, success was found and I have a new pair of boots so I can look like all the other girls on the street. (This is very important).
They've already stretched out since yesterday, so it only takes 10 minutes to put the two on.

Hello.

Segovia

On Wednesday we took a big old group trip to Segovia. We took a tour of the University, my film professor gave a lecture, we went on a bus tour, and then walked about for an hour ALL while freezing our patooties off. Stanford students are so good at multi-tasking.

Here are some of my standard below-standard photos.

Aquaduct:

This is the castle in Segovia that supposedly inspired Walt Disney for Sleeping Beauty's castle.
The large majority of my pictures came out incredibly fuzzy. Bus tours are silly. Looking at this one makes me seasick. So I thought I should share.


I've decided that studying abroad is a little like knowing you're going to die in 6 months. You're presented with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and you know exactly when its going to end. We end up listening to the id a bit too much -- always have seconds and deserts and going out.
Lately, it's been stressing me out, because we've crossed the half-way point and I think I have to make the most of every second. It's resulted in a lot less sleeping this past week.

Mooo

I bought these socks this weekend:
They are from a Spanish store (I just Wikipedia-d this and it turns out to be part of the same company as Zara, in case you were interested) called Oysho which sells sweaters and underwear and the like.

My host mom said that they didn't seem Spanish because they were too creative. She said clever things like that are usually American. She also thought that corn dogs (as I explained them) were ingenious. They're definitely not something Spaniards would invent.

You can travel the world but nothing comes close to the golden coast

I am writing from the second day off in two consecutive weeks. (Last week -- no school Monday, this week no school Tuesday). This is extra excellent because we always have Fridays off. Two three day weeks in a row! Tomorrow we go to Segovia and that will be almost vacation-like except for the lecture we will attend.

On Sunday night, I went to the European Music Video Awards outdoor-concert-ma-bob along with, oh I don't know, ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND other people. (This may be rounding up, but it is not exaggeration) It was very crowded and very difficult to see anything.

Still, I got pictures of a screen of Jared Leto (be still my heart):

and Katy Perry:

And I got to sing along to California Girls in Madrid, which I found utterly delightful and the Madrileños around me found annoying.

and Linkin Park. When "Linkin Park" is chanted by a lot of Spanish people it sounds more like "Leaky Park". Which I like a lot.

1st surprise of the night: although I don't like Linkin Park very much, I enjoyed their performance.

2nd surprise: KANYE! He was only onstage for about 1 minute with 30 Seconds to Mars but it was delightful nonetheless.
For some reason I thought that this face would be the best one to make for a picture, and in retrospect I'm not sure I was wrong.

Acetie

I think a lot of people think of Spanish food as paella or maybe ham. They should think of it as olive oil. Olive oil is the absolute center of cooking in Spain and they even bring it to you at the table in restaurants:


Salt and olive oil. This is a pretty classy olive oil container, I hope you believe me that there's oil inside.

Kitten update!

Yesterday, I happened to return to the same spot as the man with the kitten. The kitten was still there, and still adorable, but no longer on the man's knee.
I did not take a picture.

Oops

I thought we (the Stanford program) were going to Segovia today.

We're going next week.

What it's all about

Check this out(pun intended):


That's right. I'm an international library member. I've never been so proud.


In case you were confused about why it was so necessary to buy the two croissants for one euro, let me tell you that this weekend I spent 1.90€ on ONE croissant. It was smaller than either of the croissants you get for 50cents. Ludacris.

Things I love about Spain, number 102

GIANT sugar packets. Always.


My bad... you can't really tell the scale in this picture because the cups are smaller here. Rest assured, the sugar packets are giant.

So you want to be a metro-musician

Imma let you in on a tip: have an adorable baby on the train, and have that baby be really into your music. Seriously, these guys cleaned up. I'm not sure the baby wasn't a plant.

Another way to profit off adorableness:
Yes, that is a tiny kitten perched on this man's knee.

If I were hipper, I might make a Vampire Weekend reference.

Did you know that there is no such thing as an Oxford Comma in Spanish? No discussion. It just doesn't exist.

That makes me sad because the debate over the Oxford Comma is my favorite thing about English grammar. I even like the Oxford/Serial Comma debate.

You know what I don't like about grammar? Learning it in Spanish.

Mis amigos Diego, Daniel y Ernesto

In my English class today (I teach English to teenage immigrants from the Dominican Republic/other Latin American countries. I'm not sure that was clear), some of the boys wrote on the white board in permanent marker.
You know what, though? It turns out cheap AXE knockoffs do a really good job of removing it. Good job, guys.

It's easy to win games when you make up the rules

I think I've gotten really good at this game I've invented. I call it "Spot the American".

Clues:
Speaking English (you would think there'd be more British people, but 90% of the English I hear on the street is American)
Wearing any sort of "comfortable" or exercise clothing
Or sneakers.
Smiling.
Wayfarers.
Sweatshirts.
Backpacks.
Eating food/drinking beverage on the street.
iPods (this is trickier, lots of Madrileños seem to have the iPod touch/iPhone, but the classic iPod is far rarer)

I will never know how many people I miss, but I love when I spot one and then he/she starts speaking English. So much victory.

On an only slightly related note, I overheard this conversation last week in American:
Woman: What's that? (indicating a pretty building across the street).
Man: I think its a Church.
This is a great example of Americans' relationship to Spain. We assume that all pretty/old buildings mean something significant, but there are just a lot of churches in Spain.

Like that time we walked past a really long line on the street and thought it was some sort of free concert or the like. No, it was just Mass.

This is some crucial advice.

If you ever find yourself in Madrid, working next to a place that sells TWO CROISSANTS FOR ONE EURO (not like they're the best croissants ever, but they're not bad and they're big and you get two of them for just one euro) obviously you'll buy them. You're not stupid. You can only eat one at work (you're only there for two hours) and you don't need to seem like a fat American.

So you eat the other one on the metro, right? WRONG. Do not eat your second croissant on the metro.
1) People just don't eat food outside of the house/restaurants here. Eating is not for the street. Starbucks is trying to get people to take coffee to go and, thank god, it's not working.
2) Madrileños are rubberneckers. They have no shame in staring at the strange thing that is happening to by them. They love watching fights. There was a dog on the metro today and you'd have thought it was a parade. The metro is also boring, that might have something to do with it.
3) Croissants are really crumbly.

Next thing you know, you'll have crumbs all over yourself and all 20 people in the Metro staring at you, judging you.
Wait until you get home, grasshoppers.

The metro and I have a tumultuous relationship

I took pictures yesterday in the metro and left my battery charging over night so I could show you the awesome metro signage.
THEN, this morning the metro tried to take advantage and eat my hand. I was running to catch it, and managed to stick my arms in the door when they brutally closed on me, trapping my bag inside. The people on the train had to pry the doors open so I could get my bag out.
So the metro and I are not on good speaking terms rights now. I'm thinking of taking the bus to my internship today.

Anyway, the Metro is clean and prompt and all that, but my favorite thing is the really clear signage. BART could learn a thing or two.



So let's say I have to get from Rubén Dario to Velázquez. I see that I have to take the green line (number 5) to Alonso Martínez and get on the brown line (number 4) to Velázquez. They have these maps in the stations, too, but that picture would have come out horribly.

But let's say you're Naomi, and you only remember the color of the line you have to get on, or you don't remember the direction or the stop. If you were on the BART, you would be screwed. In Madrid:

This handy sign tells you all of the stops this train will hit, and what transfers you can make at each station, referring to the lines with their color, number, and names. Amazing.

This sign is also visible from the metro, so if you're on the metro and you're like, dang, what was my stop? You can look out the window and see which stop does your transfer, and how many stops are left, etc.

Then, when you get off these help you out:
And my favorite: Although the unit of a "min" seems to vary, the signs are pretty reliable.

Overall, good signage, Madrid Metro people. Don't think I'm not still mad at you about this morning.