El Parque de Retiro

On Saturday (January 12th), I decided to walk around the Retiro Park by myself while the other students went back to take naps. The day was just too beautiful to not further explore this wonderful city, so I decided to head out without a plan and it turned out that the park was an excellent idea for such a clear and sunny day.

What was the most amazing was looking out over the lake and seeing the giant monument. Literally everywhere I turned I saw new extraordinary things that I did not expect to find. People were in row boats romantically enjoying the day on the water under the blue sky, children were playing all around, and beautiful fountains and monuments surrounded me everywhere that I went.

The lake in Retiro Park

At one point in the trees I stumbled upon a magnificent building that turned out to be some sort of palace that was currently being used as a modern art gallery. Unlike the Prado Museum of Art, I was not as impressed with these exhibits, but it was free so I decided to look around a little bit.

Later, while enjoying the sun and the gardens, I came upon a beautiful greenhouse that didn't actually appear to currently have plants inside but was merely a glass building for people to walk around inside.

And in closing of my boring secluded day of blogging [I have been home sick] below is a picture of the sunrise I just witnessed outside my window.

El Museo Nacional de Prado

El Museo Nacional de Prado (the Prado Museum) is a very well known art museum, although admittedly I am not but so cultured in art museums, an area which I need to improve for better roundness. It typically will cost money to go into the museum, but if I go with API or my school I can get in for free with them. This is another example of taking full advantage of your program. I went to the museum for the first time (I'm sure I'll return, there is just too much to see) on Saturday the 12th. This was the first day of sun after several day of cold and fog basically making it a perfect day to walking around the area of the museum both before and afterwards.

El Museo Nacional de Prado

Church outside of the Prado

The Prado is home to a lot of works by Goya and they currently have a set of works called "El Joven Van Dyck" which means "The young Van Dyck," in addition to enormous galleries by other artists. I was truly impressed by the works in the museum and particularly loved the pieces pertaining to perception. It blows my mind that someone can paint something that changes depending on the direction you are looking from. I did not take any pictures inside of the museum, although no one explicitly told me not to do so. But here are some pictures of me blissfully enjoying the wonderful day.

Spanish fountain (classic)

                                                                                                     Beautiful old cathedral

Maybe I'll stay at the Ritz one day

                  I believe this to be the equivalent to the Wall Street stock market exchange

                                                               Gorgeous day

      Always ready to party in Madrid

This is a painting on a building! Not several buildings.

All in all, regardless of if the day is sunny or foggy, the city itself is absolutely gorgeous. But on those few winter days when you forget that it is winter, its amazing to get out and see the sun.

El Palacio Real de Madrid

Although I have only been here for a week, I have already enjoyed many adventures just exploring the city. And because I am home sick for the day, I am going to explain them so that I can live vicariously through my own past adventures for the day. I am always trying to learn new things, so now that I am in an entirely new city in an entirely different country, I am constantly walking down new streets and looking into different stores just to get my bearings on everything so that I can live smoothly in the months to come. That, and I'm just excited to see new things, even if I am walking around alone because everyone else is sleeping or doesn't feel like walking several miles wondering.

One of the first really breathtaking places I saw with API was El Palacio Real de Madrid (the Royal Palace of Madrid). Technically, Spain is a constitutional monarchy, however, the monarch holds no executive role other than appointing officials, requiring reports of official activities and representing Spain at formal and ceremonial occasions. The king is also the commander and chief of the Spanish Armed Forces. Currently, the King is Juan Carlos I, and the palace in Madrid is no longer inhabited by the royal family. What I've found interesting about European culture is that they are willing to pay so much tax money towards a family that is merely representing them as a country, but otherwise merely a figurehead. This is the same as the government in England. I will admit that our own politicians in the states receive high salaries themselves, however.

The Royal Palace

Gardens outside the palace

Upon entering the Royal Palace, I was absolutely breath taken. In the United States you can visit old colonial homes that are very ornate and gorgeous, but nothing compares to buildings that are many times older that are ornate in absolutely every way, like the palace in Madrid. Unfortunately, you are not supposed to technically take pictures inside of the palace, so I have attached some that I found online to highlight how incredible the architecture, furniture, all of it truly is. There were no guides available the day that we went, and so we got to be tourists that listened into phone-looking contraptions to hear an audio-guide of the palace.

                         Throne room

                                                                                                          

Facing the royal palace is the Almudena Cathedral of Madrid. It is not the most impressive cathedral in Spain, or so I have been told, merely because it is fairly recent and was made to model the style of the palace.

                            Almudena Cathedral

                  Main alter

                                                                                                                Cathedral at night

Spain is so beautiful that it can also be distracting. One night, upon returning home, my roommate Patty and I could not open the door to the apartment. We both tried the key so many ways. So defeated, we had to ask the security gaurd outside to come with us to the 11th floor to open our lock for us, which ended up being incredibly easy. They do not have special locks here. They are apparently the same.

Tour de los Austrias

One of my favorite things that I have done so far was taking a Tour de los Austrias, which literally means a tour of the Austrian parts of Spain. This is because Spanish kings for many years in the past were Austrian. The more recent kings are Bourbon. This tour I took through my university and it was conducted in Spanish by one of the professors. She told us all kinds of side facts about Madrid. Example: Many years ago, the people of Barcelona attacked the people of Madrid, who then climbed up their buildings to escape and because of this, some people of Barcelona still nickname those of Madrid "gatos" which means cats.

The symbol of Madrid is a bear climbing a Madrono tree (a popular tree in this area). This is to represent the beginnings of a middle class that could rise up in society. I also learned that because Madrid is approximately the center of Spain, the center of Madrid is mile-marker 0 for the country. This is reminiscent of the mile-roads from Detroit.

           Statue of the symbol of Madrid

                                                                                                      Mile Marker 0. The center of Spain.

We walked through La Plaza Mayor (the main plaza), which is simply a giant open plaza in the middle of the city. There are street vendors and shops under the surrounding buildings. Currently the buildings surrounding the plaza are 4 stories tall, but in the past they were 5 stories tall, but just about all of it burned down in a massive fire. In order to make the building more fire-proof, they could only build four stories at the time.

Plaza Mayor

I'm very glad that I went on this tour, because I learned so many little facts about the city as well as important information about its history. I also would never have found many of these old parts of the city on my own. Madrid seems like it never ends. Also side note: I have yet to stumble upon a neighborhood that seems shady or frightening yet. I truly believe that American cities are much more dangerous than Madrid. Anyways, we came upon some very old medieval buildings. They way that you can tell is because the bases of the buildings pertrude out into the street. This just has to do with the architecture of the day. In order to build higher up, it was necessary to make a wider base for your "skyscrapers." All in all, I would say that the older parts of Madrid are by far my favorite, because even though the winding streets can be very difficult to navigate, they are just gorgeous. Every street brings a new surprise!

                             Medieval street

                Oh, how I adore architecture!

                                                                                                 Catholicism is heavily present in older parts

One of the old streets has a traditional rumor that says "Quien no pasa por la pasa no se casa." This literally means whoever does not pass by the raisins does not get married, although it sounds prettier when it rhymes in Spanish. On this street they are known for making raisins. So if you want to get married one day, you should bring your boy/girl of choice down this alley of Madrid!

 And on the end of our tour we indulged in a popular Spanish treat, churros with chocolate at the most famous place for chocolate in Madrid, La Chocolateria de San Ginés. On the wall of this restaurant are hundreds of photos of famous people (American and Spanish) enjoying their food. I ordered the standard churros con chocolate, but should have definitely split it with someone even though it only cost €3.80 or something close to this. It was 6 churros with basically an entire mug of melted chocolate bar. Too much to eat, even for my sweet tooth. This is probably not my favorite Spanish desert, but it is quite good.

Student life and money

Universidad Nebrija: The University of Antonio de Nebrija. I began classes on January 9th, however these are not my regular semester classes. I am taking part in a one-month intensive language program that will give me 6 credits of Spanish grammar and language. Unfortunately, these classes will not transfer to the United States, but I decided to take them in order to become more fluent in Spanish before the semester begins. As I am constantly trying to learn and make things easier for myself, I plan to use this month to learn the city and the language, so that the remainder of my stay will be much easier and I can blend in more easily.

                              School entrance

                                                                                                                    My building   

            Huge park next to the university

Antonio de Nebrija was the first man to publish a Spanish language grammar book. So it seems fitting that this school would offer classes to improve Spanish skills.

Because I am not even receiving credits for my classes now, I do not believe that they will be that difficult. I've only had three days of classes, but my homework has only taken about 20 minutes each night, which is unheard of in the engineering world of studies. Also, my class has eight students, which is also unheard of at Virginia Tech. I definitely receive a lot of attention.

In some ways, having so much attention from a professor is not the best thing because in Spain, classes are supposed to be much more respectful to professors. Not only does everyone dress nice to class, but it is considered bad etiquette to stretch or yawn, which can get very hard in an hour and twenty minute class. They do not permit eating in class at all, but it is somewhat acceptable to drink water. Just about all of this is contrary to American schools where the mentality is that we are paying to be in school so we are much more relaxed. That, and in a 100 person lecture hall, how is the professor going to see you eating a bagel in the back row?

In that same mindset, you do not see people on the metro or walking to work drinking coffee or eating on the run. Which is basically all that you see in America. I am certainly not used to this. I have about an hour commute, where I'm just standing around. In America, without hesitation, I would be eating breakfast and chugging water. But not here. It simply is not done. Starbucks must make a lot less money here.

Due to the one hour commute, and the need to eat breakfast beforehand, I end up waking up quite early round 6:45 am for an 8:30 am class, and so that is different that my normal day where I wake up 15 minutes before class. Also, they only give us 20 minutes for lunch in the middle of the day so you really cannot eat very much until around 2 pm in the afternoon. Basically I am always starving. Between the constant hunger and the apparent exhaustion  I have been sleeping unreal amounts of sleep. Almost 12 hours a day. But yesterday (January 13) unfortunately, I ended up running a temperature over 101, so I know now that I am not just tired.

I actually got sick when I first arrived, so fortunately I had a host mother who could speak with the pharmacist for me after I struggled to explain the problems in Spanish to her. One interesting thing in Spain is that you do not necessarily need a prescription to buy medicines. The pharmacists go to school much longer here than in the United States so they are almost doctors themselves, and can speak with you to decide what you need. There are so many "farmacias" underneath the apartment buildings near me. They are all small and locally owned. Also, instead of a red cross or whatever that weird symbol we use for a pharmacy, they use a green cross.

Typical pharmacy

In order to pay for everything here, you obviously need to use Euros. To me, the euros appear to look like children's play money, but it's probably just because I am not used to bills with so many colors. What they do not tell you before going abroad is how hard it can be to access your American money. My friend Sam brought several traveler's checks, as many people will tell you to do. Do NOT do this. This is apparently a dying fad, and we walked around for over an hour going to several banks who not only would not exchange them but couldn't even think of a bank that would do so. That could be something you find annoying should you go to Europe. Everyone tells you that travelers checks are the way to go, but the Europeans no longer use them.

Also, with credit cards you are required to enter a pin to use them here. Actually, all the Spaniards cannot comprehend that we just swipe our cards and it works just like that. I honestly question it myself, just because the point of the pin is to prevent anyone else from using it. In the states, if you steal someone's credit card, you can shop online with nothing but the card. You often need no previous knowledge of the person. Fortunately I opened a checking account with Charles Swabb which is an investment company that reimburses me for any ATM fees and doesn't have any conversion fees. So this saves me the hassle of having to withdraw obscene amounts of cash at one time.

Euros (the bills are smaller than dollars)

Going along with money, living in Madrid is very expensive. Well, at least if you are not smart about it. I'm determined to find out where the locals eat and shop, because obviously the touristy areas around Sol are to be avoided. I will admit that the stereotype (as well as the majority) of students who study abroad are incredibly wealthy children who have parents that are paying for everything and the more they spend, the more their parents will give them. I'm sure if I get myself into a deep hole, my parents will help me out, but mostly I intend to pay for this trip entirely on my own and so its beyond crucial that I save money in every way possible. I do not mind going without a nice lunch if it means that I get to visit Morocco for a weekend. Because of this I am determined to sort out which areas are cheap and which are expensive. And as other students have told me before, I'm going to try and pack a lunch everyday as well as stay in many nights as I cannot afford to go out four nights a week and still backpack Europe at the end of this semester. Paying to study abroad on your own means you have got to be incredibly money conscious  That is, unless your parents don't mind giving your thousands of dollars to blow in a few months.

Typical shop scene in Madrid

Going along with shopping smart, I looked at a plug converter at a large store downtown near Sol and it cost €10 (10 euro) but then I decided to look around my local neighborhood in the smaller electronics stores and I found the exact same type of plug converter for €1.95, less than 1/5 of the other price. This is why I am money conscious because you can always find a better deal here. And by better deal, it can mean large savings if you are smart.

With rebajas (huge sales) going on, I know that I do not actually need any winter clothing because it will be hot for the majority of my stay here and also because winter clothes will just add weight and volume to my luggage on the flight home. The only clothing purchases that I have made were two summer dresses from Lefties, which is the store that sells Zara clothing that was on the shelf for more than two weeks.

                               Dress: €3.99 = $5.33

                                                                                                      Belt: €1.99 = $2.66

                   Dress and belt: €5.99 = $8.01

Early observations of Spain

Due to the winter season, many of the last few days have been complete foggy skies, and some days when I look out the 11th story window of our apartment, I can barely see the city at all. Those days are always a little bit gloomy to not see the sun for several days. This probably lasted from Tuesday until Friday.

Like Nesquik in the United States a popular breakfast drink here is Colacao, which is just chocolate milk. It seems to me that their breakfasts are similar to the deserts we may eat after dinner (cookies, pastries, and cakes) and then a lot of bread. Side note: they buy their bread everyday and it is AMAZING!

Chocolate milk

In general, they really do not sell recognizable brands in the supermarkets of American foods. I saw a few boxes of cereal that were Kelloggs brand, but the cereal names were all new to me. I will admit, I had imagined that Madrid would be a LOT more Americanized than it actually is. I had imagined seeing more American stores like CVS or Belk, or stores of those natures, but the only American stores are fast-food chains (Burger King, McDonalds, Subway, and Dunkin' Donuts are the only ones I've seen) and then of course, StarBucks. But even these restaurants only seem to appear in the "touristy" parts of the city and not as often in the regular neighborhoods. It always makes me smile to see "Nuggets de pollo" - literally chicken nuggets, but in Spanish.

We DID cave in for an American evening one night and went to get milkshakes a legitimate looking 1950's dinner in downtown Madrid. Double chocolate brownie milkshake, so good.

At times even their courtesy is different. In the metro, our line is one of the deeper metros and so we must go down three rather long stretches of escalators, and EVERYONE stands on the right side of the escalator. This leaves the left side like a passing lane so that if you are in a rush, you just fly up or down the escalators. Its actually a really convenient system. All around the metro is an incredibly convenient system. It is very easy to use to get to any part of the city that you want, very fast. Supposedly Madrid's metro is one of the best in the world. They are constantly cleaning it (I've seen men washing the walls) and I actually feel much MUCH safer than I do in American subways. You just don't have the "freaks" that you see in America. None of those gothic teenagers, not nearly as many saggy pants, very few people with hair any color but brown, EVERYONE is just dressed insanely well. Don't get me wrong, pickpocketers will dress like this as well, but  no one appears to be out of the norm and so you don't worry about particular people as much as you may in the United States. All in all, the metro is amazing. The most empty a car has been is having half the seats open and the most full it has been is packed. But this is great because I've never been in a car alone with someone messing with me.

As I was saying in another post, all the men just dress really well. Also the younger guys around my age always cut the sides and back of their hair really short and then leave the top decently long and fluff it up as you'll see below. I actually think it looks really good, though I'm not sure what I'd think of Kevin trying it ;) My best guess is that a lot of the Real Madrid and Barce futbol (soccer) players set the trends for 20 year old guys as well as teenagers as they are the idols of this country.

Standard hairstyle

For those of you who speak Spanish this next observation will be interesting, however, to the rest of you not as much. In order to abbreviate numbers like we do with 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc, they use a super scripted "o" or "a". So primero = 1^o this is seen in my address:

C/ Antonio Cumella 11,

Apt. 11°C

28030 Madrid

The C/ stands for calle which every street is a calle here, larger ones are avenidas, and high ways are carreteras, I believe. Similar to New York City, streets are not just arbitarily given the name "lane" or "circle" or "street" etc. Other common words can be abbreviated like the numbers as well. Because Spain is historically catholic, until the end of the reign of Franco, all women born in Spain had Maria added to their name by a priest. As I am not catholic, I cannot explain this tradition further, but Maria = M^a

Life with a host family

I am incredibly lucky for everything that I have here, heck to even be here. I am especially lucky to have been assigned the woman that I have. She is a middle-aged nurse with two children. Her daughter is 24 and lives with her, which is perfect since we are close in age. She studies fashion, so it will probably be a lot of fun to go shopping Las Rebajas (huge sales) with her. Her son is 30 and is staying here temporarily as he just lost his job in London. He has been living in London for the past 6 years and so he speaks very good English, just with a British accent. The rest of the family does not speak English.

They live in the suburb of Moratalaz, but this is not the type of suburb that we would imagine. There are no cul-de-sacs with nice houses. Instead, there are blocks and blocks of apartment buildings as far as the eye can see. And these suburbs are not a short drive from commercial life, there are small shops below all of the apartment. Just outside our apartment is a dentist, a bread shop, a pharmacy, a fruit shop, and other small shops.

Our host mom is supposedly a very good cook. So far we have only had two dinners here. The first night she made us Paella, which is one of the most famous Spanish dishes. It is rice with either seafood or meat. She used shrimp and small oysters. It was absolutely delicious. Last night she made us some sort of hard boiled egg filled with tomato sauce and tuna. It sounds like a very odd combination, but it was absolutely delicious.

View from my window

Sunset over the city from window

This is a very nice apartment in that it has heating, air conditioning, and underground parking. My host mom has her own car which is convenient when she offers to drive you into the city. There is also a close metro station and bus stop.

I share a room with another American named Patty. She is from outside Chicago, but attends school in Oregon. The family has an 8 year old golden retriever named Zar. He is very sweet and adorable. He would not hurt a fly.

My bedroom, Patty is on her bed

Our closets and door (isn't this adorable?)

Our own bathroom, complete with bidet

Electricity here costs a lot more than in the United States, so when you walk into the apartment building the lights in the halls and outside the elevator are off until you trigger the motion sensor. Utilities in general cost a lot more than we are used to in the United States.

Also, many people sleep in later (since night life literally lasts until dawn), and so they have hurricane shutters that are basically metal shutters that are found between the two panes of glass on the window that completely seal out all light from entering the room. I love them.

For the day of Los Reyes (the kings), our host mom, well technically "Los Reyes" bought both Patty and I scarves. Scarves are INCREDIBLY popular here. They are probably even more popular for men than they are for women. Just all around the men dress incredibly well.

New scarf

It is completely normal for a man to be very fashionable, in fact a man would stick out if he was not. For young men the most popular hairstyle is definitely to shave the sides and back, and have a spiked-up look on top. It looks pretty good. Everyone is always dressed up and the women always have nice boots and pea coats. Fashionable purses seem to be the rage as well. Heels are very popular and you actually will stand out if you are not dressed up as we may to go out in the US, but certainly not how we dress for class or our daily lives. I don't think I've seen a single person wearing jeans and a T-shirt here. Granted, this is Madrid, one of the fashion capitals of the world.

Zara, for any of you fashion lovers, is a Spanish fashion company that is very elite. Once something is on the shelves, it is removed 2 weeks later sold or not. Then they sell it at their other store "Lefties" like left-over. This is a store that I will probably frequent more so than Zara. There are other popular stores such as Mango, and then of course, the Swedish H&M.

Madrid

The lifestyle is definitely different here. The rumor of "Las siestas" (the naps) during the middle of the day is only partly true. Some stores and most restaurants will close from 2-5pm for La Siesta, but most people will work straight through the day as corporate life is trying to keep up with other countries.

I feel like most people must need siestas in order to function because most clubs don't even open till around 1 or 2 in the morning. And the metro starts its last train at 1:30am and there isn't another one until 6am.  Due to this, it is pretty common to just stay out in order to not pay for a taxi home. The nightlife in Madrid is supposed to be the best in Europe, and is rumored to be in the world.

Another big difference is meals. Because people stay out so very late, it is not common to eat dinner before 9 or 10pm at night. Our host mom serves our meals at 9pm. Most restaurants won't even open until 9pm for dinner. It is normal to eat a very small breakfast as well, like a piece of bread and a pastry with some coffee. Because of this, I often feel like I'm very hungry. I'm going to need to bring snacks with me everywhere. Also, I have learned that walking around the city it is a good idea to bring water with you if you like drinking water as much as I do.

Last note: I feel much safer in Madrid than in US cities. You do not see the "sketchy" looking people that you do in the United States, which means that the pick-pocketers look like regular people of course. But what's different is that US cities have a LOT higher murder rates as well as rape rates. The main thing to worry about here is getting robbed. I'd much prefer this to being raped or murdered. Also there are just so many people around, being grabbed would be much much more difficult than stealing from someone without them knowing it. Just hold your purse at all times.

Madrid is wonderful :)