Feliz Navidad!

Been a while, hey? I knew this would start to happen with the blog. I´ve been here now for almost four months so life becomes ¨life¨....those little everyday things that I feel no need to write about. I officially live in Spain now, got my green card last week! Even though I´m pretty settled in one spot now, I´ll try to fill you in on the details. I am totally loving where I´m living. These past few weeks have been SO hard with school. I´ve had exams, tons of papers and presentations to finish, and all that ¨junk¨. I know I should be saying I´m learning from it but the truth is: not really. I TOTALLY miss the US education system. Yeah, it´s easy and they baby us...BUT I feel like classes are fun compared to here. Madrid classes are really just professors talking for 90 minutes about the agriiculture of Spain in the middle ages...imagine that in another language thinking the whole time ¨great... and in another 400 years Columbus discovered my country!¨ BOOOOOooooring. My literature class is great and very interactive but the rest...not impressed. I´m hoping it´s only because I picked bad classes this semester and next semester will be better. One can hope, right? I do know one thing, I can´t WAIT to go back to Madison!!!!

I think I learn the most when I´m with my roomies...I´ve finally reached the point where I can understand some jokes and even make my own. They have started answering the telephone ¨hello¨so that all of their friends slowly say: ¨H-o-l-a....I-R-E-N-E por favor.¨They think it´s hularious that they can pretend to be me and have their frends dumb down the Spanish thinking it´s me. No, in all seriousness, as much as I say I have not, I have improved. A lot. My roomies keep saying, ¨think of your first day, the first one...and now look, you´re speaking spanish!!!¨ Irene and I compared pictures of Paris the other night and I was trying so hard not to laugh. All of hers were gorgeous, sophisticated, artistic. I had to explain why there were multiple picture of me slapping the butts of ancient greek god statues in the Lourve and pole dances in front of the Moulin Rouge. Niceeeee. So American of me.

Super excited, tonight my friend Taryn is coming over to ¨study phonetics¨ but since we´re pretty much already done with our papers this is just an excuse to watch Christmas movies in English and eat taco dip....YAY! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel already :) Since I was pigging out a year ago today as it was my first day back in the States, I figured I will make Dec. 18th an annual ¨feast¨ day...any excuses people!

Leaving for Scotland on Dec. 20th and then off to Ireland on Dec. 22nd. I´ll spend the first two days with my friend Megan and her fiance in Glasgow and the rest with my friend Maggie from Northern Ireland and her family. Both were volunteers with me in Africa and I could think of no better way to spend my Christmas this year. Then on the 27th, my friends Andrew and Mel come to visit me from the States and let me tell ya, I´m feeling the love already! How sweet of them to come over here to celebrate the new year!!!! Will keep you posted :) Until then, God Bless and have a very Merry Christmas. If you get some time, shoot me a Christmas email at bcurtis@wisc.edu .....I´d love to hear from you all. FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!

A romantic weekend

On Rou du Rivoli



On top of the Eiffel Tower

First of all, congrats to my cousins Kevin and Jenni whose wedding I missed. The pictures from Aunt Nancy looked so beautiful and it looked like everyone was having lots of fun! Wish I could have been there, but.....I was in romantic Paris instead.

So I have literally travelled around the world, but I have to say Paris is my all time favorite city....I know, I know. I rip on the French all the time, but they were actually SO much kinder than the people of Madrid! We arrived Tuesday night and stayed in a hostal right across the street from the Lourve. I got up everyday at 5:30am to go run. Imagine running in the dark with no one around for miles on the river Seine past the Lourve with the Mona Lisa, the famous concierge prison where the revolutionaries spent their last days, seeing the Eiffel Tower, etc. So incredible!
In our four days we were able to visit the Eiffel tower at night, during the day, see the Lourve and the famous Mona Lisa, the modern museum with the famous Van Goughs, the Moulin Rouge and red light district, we were able to "storm" the Bastille, drink coffee in little cafes, have a baguette and cheese, tour the famous districts, see the grave of James Morrison, the Notre Dame cathedral, and on and on and on. Just amazing. My friend Katie was a great travel buddy and we were able to see so much of the amazing city. I think I am studying the wrong language :) Everyone in that city is in love, even if it's just with the city itself...would love to go back someday.

World AIDS Day!

Hope you all are having a wonderful World AIDS Day. It's sooooo hard for me to think last year I was in the middle of Africa celebrating the day with an infected population of 33%. Now I'm in a European capital city where our education and socio-economic status doesn't allow that, but the problem is still a worldwide one. What a difference a year can make.

Hope you all are wearing your red ribbons!

This week was exam week so I am exahusted and BEAT! I'm working on my School of Ed. application today and then celebrating a friend's birthday tonight. I won't stay long, I honestly feel a little crappy celebrating on days like this one where I think of my friends in Africa who have nothing to celebrate. I called Malawi today to check in, it's always so good to talk with them to make sure everyone survived this month. I guess the volunteers decided to continue with the World AIDS Day celebration that I started last year. AWESOME! Haha, I love how I tried to change to topic to school and Spain but somehow got back to Africa. Can you guess where my heart is?

Anyways, things are good here. Leaving on Tuesday for Paris with my friend Katie. I can't wait! I am so gratful to be so blessed!!! Hope you all are doing well and remember: LOVE LIFE: KNOW YOUR HIV STATUS! Tawonga ukongwa!

Thanksgiving (Spain Style and better-style!)

This would be when the table was collapsing!

My roomies eating their first Thanksgiving meal

The Spanish charades team singing the national anthem.

ROOMIES!!!

The Spanish say "pAtAtAs" in their pictures and this is how it turns out!

Friday was the culmination of my great Thanksgiving idea: cooking for my Spanish roomies. Lucky for me, my friend Katie offered to help and she's a pretty fancy chef at the American Club! So, we had all that we needed...more or less. I bought all the stuff at the store here, a little hard to find some of it. But, we got it all by Friday. We started cooking in the world's smallest kitchen around 6pm and finished by about 10pm. Only one ball of fire with the gas stove and we were good to go! We had turkey, stuffing, cranberries, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, red wine, bread, TACO DIP (aka Mary Pat's dip), and even pumpkin pie and ice cream....pretty close, hey?!?! When we put everything on the table my roomies were in awe! They kept saying "it's like we're on Friends!" We decided to take a picture before dinner and it might be the best picture EVER. We were all hungry, wanting to eat, but decided to put the self timer picture option on quick to document the dinner. Andrea (my roommate) set it up and then ran to be in the picture. Sometimes she can have a little too much energy so when she came flying in for the picture she ran right into me and then caught herself on the table. Did I mention it is a cheap folding table? The picture we captured was as the table was folding in half with all the stuff still on it!!!!!! PERFECT TIMING. Click.

Not to worry, we caught the table and had a great meal. They were complaining about the post-meal cramps and bloating....I did't say anything about my American-ness rubbing off on them when two hours later they brought out the leftovers. They even ate it again for lunch! We ate, loved the food, and then played charades for a few hours. In the end, the Spaniards (and actress majors) declared themselves the winners and got up to sing the Spanish anthem in front of "Team America". A lot of laughs, culture jokes, and a great Thanksgiving...I've got to be thankful I live here with them! :)

Thanksgiving (American Version)

You MUST be joking...apple pie does NOT contain flan, Spain! haha



At dinner :)

We're both so "guay" that Taryn and I bought the same coat!

So, since Thanksgiving in an American holiday it's not too big of a deal here in Spain. Since it's my second one in a row away from home it's not too bad, either. Last year we were killing the birds in the morning to eat at night....today I was in a gourmet Spanish Restaurant. That's something to be thankful for right there! Our American program payed for our meals and we even got apple pie...WAIT....it was actually flan with apples on top!!! No joke...all I could do was laugh.

I decided to cook a "real" Thanksgiving meal for my Spanish roommates so tomorrow my friend Katie (who is a cook at the American Club) is coming over to help me :) That will be my REAL Thanksgiving meal. Truth is, I pretty much have thanksgiving everyday since I've been blessed with so much again this year!!! Seriously, how awesome is it that in just the past year I've been to 7 different countries, lived in 3 of them, and attended 2 amazing universities!?!?!? A roof over my head, electricity/water for most of the year, food on the table, and a whole lot of love......couldn't ask for more and I'm thankful for every moment of it!!!!!

Other than that, school is getting a little intense now with midterms coming up. I did however make time to go out with my roomie, Andrea, and her friend who was visiting. Her friend is from Brazil, is of Korean decent, and they met in London so last night we were speaking Portu-Engli-anish...my head felt like exploding trying to figure out what language we were in! I think I need a Thanksiving nap...or a siesta! It's now past midnight here so Turkey Day is over here but I hope you're all enjoying your meals right now, taking off your belts. And if you just ate a meal with friends and family, took a nap in your house, watched the Packer game on a television, and then turned on your computer to log on to the internet, you've got plenty to be thankful for this year!!!! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! (PS they started playing Christmas music in Spain today...just like at home...bring the season on)

Dear Mom,

So after reading my blog my mom keeps asking if I actually go to school or not. I put this song on here just for her and would like to remind her that I still have a pitcure of her toothless at a wedding....so go ahead and keep on asking, lady! Just kidding...love ya, madre...and YES I do go to school :)

All I want is a cup of beer!!!

Oh the mistakes continue. Look, I promise to all I actually am learning Spanish but my lastest mistake takes the cake! I went out to a play with my roomies last night to practice my Spanish and actually understood the play! I was pumped and on a Spanish "high" feeling all confident and exctied at how good I am becoming. "Bang"...that plane got shot down FAST. We went to a bar afterwards with their whole theater class....I actually know a lot of the people since they have either been here or I have been to their house, right? One of the guys asked me what I wanted to drink so I told him the tap beer or "cana"...well I mixed up my vowels and said "cono" instead. Not a big deal, they'll know what I mean, right? Turns out thte one thing in the world I should NEVER say is cono...I guess vowels do make a big difference. My roomie spun around saying "what did you just say?!?!" and then died of laughter. I guess I asked the slang term for genitalia....I rock. My roomies have joked all day asking if I want something to drink....haha. At least now I am able to speak well enough to tell them how much I think their language stinks and that no one should make words like that so close together....I guess we're mall good sports. My one roomie invited me to Christmas with her family...in Africa (Morocco). I would have said yes but already made plans. On the 20th I am flying to Scotland to spend a "first" Christmas with Megan (volunteer with me in Malawi) and her fiance, and then will take the ferry over to Ireland to spend Christmas in Cookstown with our friend Maggie (also a volunteer) and her family. I am soooo excited to see them both AND to have two Christmas' with some of the greatest people I know! They are so sweet to have me stay with them and I am so blessed to have such great friends here. December will be a crazy month visiting France, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, and Barcelona...oh, did I mention that on the 27th my friends Andrew and Mel are flying from the states to come visit me while they have Christmas vacation??? Can you imagine how pumped I am????? Better do my sleeping now :)

Fix You

I just got back again from the airport for what feels like the 100th time this year. For all I know, it was the hundredth time; to be honest; my head has been in a fog for most of it. I was saying an indefinite goodbye to my friend Megan for the second time in ten months; the first was along a dirt road in a place that now seems so far away and only we will know, understand. We met in Malawi.... and for us there is nothing else to add after that.

We came home last year and talked your ears off about our "trip"....or so you would call it. But how could any of you have known that we weren't on a trip...we were at the center of our lives. I sat at the airport today crying for the first time not for Africa, but for me, processing the sweet melancholy of all that has happened to us in the past year. We came home and tried to tell Africa's story, not our own, and this weekend we started to piece ourselves back together, which decidedly may be as far as we ever come to being "fixed".

All in all, it was a great weekend filled with as much Spanish culture as we could get in....Europe's largest flea market, flamenco dances, park visits, sangria, etc. but I think for both of us the visit was so much more than the tangible things. I already can't wait to go visit Megan and her fiance, Ryan, in Scotland later this year!

Cheer up...and so I did.

My dad has always said "Cheer up, things could get worse....so I cheered up, and sure enough, things got worse!"

The past few days have been a few of those "days" all strung together. Before I begin, don't feel bad for me. I'm of the mentality that you have to find humor in everything so I'm only sharing my misfortunes in hopes you all get a good laugh out of it, like I have. From the top:

While I don't write about it much (booooring), I actually am in school here and it just got HARD! My phonetics teacher, who the majority of the class has dubbed as crazy, has decided to "deviate" from the syllabus provided and has added a new paper....15 pages, a summary of the 300 page grammar book we have to read, all due next week. Thanks for the 7 day heads up...the fact the book isn't in the library doesn't help much either. In my novel class, I am the only foreign student out of 100 and I have the honor of giving my "semester final presentation" FIRST! Can’t wait…I still get the words “embarrassed” and “pregnant” mixed up so I’m sure at some point I’ll end up telling my fellow students about how “pregnant” I am.


Next, I had this mysterious rash on my knee after running a few days ago. I changed my pants and though nothing of it....the next day it was my WHOLE leg! Then it spread to both!!!! I was freaked, washed everything I own, and tried to think of what it could be. Turns out the hard candy I bought at the Lidl Supermarket is ACTUALLY a daily multi-vitamin and the rash was probably due to the fact I was basically eating the equivalent of half a bottle of Flintstones every day and was OD'd on zinc or vitamin E or something random like that. What an idiot.

Since I was lacking in vitamins (I haven't taken any since the rash), I was craving protein and decided to cook some chicken. Problem was our lighter was out of fluid to light the as stove....after trying a few times to light it with sparks, it finally lit....up my arm and my sweatshirt. Nothing like the smell of burned arm hair in the kitchen! No damage done but I decided to get a new lighter.

Sooo…I bought the lighter today (along with my imported bottle of $35 contact solution) and was thrilled to find that all they sold were lighters with marijuana leaves on them. So there I am with my rash, my 25 hours of homework, my burned arm hair, and drug paraphernalia walking down the street when I get home to find a bird somehow got into my room, pooped on my desk, and then got out. NO JOKE! You think I was lying hey?!?! Gets better…now, as I'm writing this blog, I have realized that the piece of gum that was on my plate for lunch has fallen off, landed under my computer and the heat has melted it between the keyboard and desk.

I am supposed to go to basketball practice and Capoeira class tonight but I am too afraid to leave the house! I think I’ll take a nap and laugh myself to sleep….:)

Cousins Weekend.....going Dutch!!

Where to begin? My “cousins” trip to Amsterdam was absolutely amazing! Katie is a superstar of a cousin, starting with picking me up at 12am from the airport…no biggie for me until I realized how FREAKING hard it is when you have kids (or even stay with them for four days!) Curtis and Johnny are sooooo well behaved and such great kids, but come 8 or 9pm each night I wanted to call my own mom and thank her…because if she had to chase after me like that all day, it sooo wasn’t worth it. Katie is seriously a super-mom AND manages to do it all in a foreign country. I even caught her doing the “soccer mom hand” on ME in the car when she hit the breaks! But not to worry, Katie is still one of those “cool” moms. I mean it. First of all, there is Amsterdam: when we took a wrong turn and wound up in the MIDDLE of the city, there were words coming out of her mouth I didn’t know existed. I can also say Katie is the only one of my cousins who would ever buy me a chocolate covered waffle to eat while we looked at sex shops together! And who kept telling me to look at the naked women in the windows in the red light district because it was “legal, their choice, and you’re only here once!”? Haha, in all seriousness, Amsterdam was a crazy city and it was much more fun to say I “saw” it with Katie rather than “experienced” it.

A quick summary to catch you up: Thursday, after opening my birthday gifts (can you believe that!?! That's cousin Katie for ya) we went to Delft and went out for a great lunch (where I got a pancake the size of my head AND broke the Delft faucet in the bathroom….sweet.) Then we bummed around town shopping and hit up the churches. Thursday night, after only spending a few hours with the boys I have never been so tired in my life and was asleep by about 8pm. Friday we went to the “Queen’s Park” on bikes and then Erik treated me to the best dinner I’ve had in Europe! We walked around Den Haag and saw where the Queen practices. It was such a fun night and the food was amazing. Saturday Katie and I went to Amsterdam, took a canal tour, saw the red light district, the coffee shops, and the Anne Frank House. It was SUCH a different city from Madrid and I loved it. It gets such a bad rap but is actually a BEAUTIFUL city!!! Then it was off the Pancake House with the boys and their friends before trick-or-treating. Yup, I’m twenty-one and went trick-or-treating…in Holland! And today it was up at the butt-crack of dawn to take me to the airport for my 7am flight. If any of the Leavers ever need a kidney or liver I guess I better be the first in line after all they did for me this weekend, hey?!?! Well, I am pooped OUT so I’m going down for my Sunday Siesta….but thanks to the Leavers….it was an amazing weekend I won’t ever forget!

Otra vez...por favor

Random picture of the three Spanish Education majors

So....I was talking to my friend Katie the other day on one of our bi-weekly US-Spain calls, bragging about how much better I've gotten with my Spanish over the past few weeks (almost all of my dreams are in Spanish now!) I told her that once you actually understand pretty much everything, there aren't so many funny moments. Guess I forgot to knock on wood!



In my literature class I needed to find a tutor in class, but the majority of the kids are foreign and I needed a Spanish student. So, I took the plunge and started asking....I was rejected about 10 times before one girl finally said "yes". I was pumped! I went on to explain what I needed, etc. and then she asked me a question. I think. I didn't know what she said so I asked her to repeat it. She did. I STILL didn't understand. I apologized and asked her to repeat it a bit more slowly. This is where is gets bad...I still didn't understand her! Haha, soooo I had to ask for a THIRD time. She said it again and I was LOST....what the heck?!?! I STILL DIDN'T UNDERSTAND. I was staring at her thinking, how the HECK am I going to be able to ask a fourth time?!?!?! 4 times?!?! I wondering what would happen if I just turned around and bolted out the door.....trust me, if I didn't need to class to graduate I would have taken my chances running. Needless to say I still don't have a tutor and I don't blame her....unless they pay extra for helping mentally handicapped Americans, it's soooo not worth it.



On an awesome note: I leave for Amsterdam tomorrow to visit my cousin Katie, her husband, and their two kids. You know that hand rubbing thing I do when I get excited, well I have blisters on my fingers this week! When I was little....wait....younger....I used to go visit Katie and Erik in Notre Dame and I can't wait to spend another Halloween weekend with them...Euro-style this time.

Weekend

Well, it's 3:30pm and I'm the only roommate awake right now....just for those of you who didn't believe me that the Spanish schedule is COMPLETELY different!!!! Nope, it's not siesta time...they're just still sleeping. I'll start from the beginning:

So Friday night we all went out for one of the Marquette girls' birthdays. At about 2am most people wanted to go to a disco, but they're way expensive so a few of us went out with a few of our Spanish friends to another bar so we could talk and practice our Spanish. It was great, but getting home at 6am is never easy...for the Americans. But it was my one night out this weekend, right? WRONG! Then last night my roommate Andrea took me out again with her friends for "dinner": while we were both sitting shoeless in the metro at 6:30am this morning talking Spanglish to each other I was trying to figure out what the heck happened to the low-key dinner?!?! One of her friends from class was having her birthday dinner and since she speaks perfect English from living in Miami I always like asking her for slang translations that most Spaniards don't know... so I decided to go. Well, at about 2am I was mentally DEAD from listening so hard to everyone's convos. That's when they decided to go to "boys town" in Madrid to the "super-cutre (trashy)" gay bar. Haha, in case I wasn't totally beat before, seeing half- naked dudes make out to "It's Raining Men" will do it. It was a change from the usual clubs, I guess. By the time we left at 6am when the Metro reopened I was pretty much flat-lined. We had to wait half an hour since the Metro broke down and it was the roughest Spanish conversation of my life..."I was, I am, you are....he IS" was a rough translation of what I sounded like fumbing for the right words. Andrea and I have never spoken more than 2 word sentences to each other in English but she started telling me a story in Enlgish about how she fell asleep in the metro once and rode for hours.....and after hearing English I gave in and just spoke in English for the next 10 minutes home. I don't think she understood much but I didn't really care. I totally cheated but I did dream in Spanish all night so something must be working!

I've got basketball practice in a few minutes so I better run but love to all back home. I leave for Amsterdam to visit my awesome cousin Katie and her family on Wednesday so I am supppppper pumped for that and will have some great updates, I'm sure!

Getting better....

Our roommate dinner: Sandra, Irene, y Andrea (and her Brazilian friend David who was in Spain for the weekend)

My Capoeira move :)
Out at Plaza de Espana with our new Spanish friends

Hey Dudes!

Well, this week has been pretty busy already. On Friday night I went out with some girls from Marquette to meet their Spanish friends at a park here. There were about 10 Spanish guys and the four of us so we got a LOT of practice speaking in Spanish. Then Saturuday, I was exhausted from Friday night but at 11:30pm my roommate asked me to go out with her and she's way to much fun to turn down. We walked about an hour across town to meet her friends and there were about 10 of them at an apartment. Of course everyone wanted to ask me questions and I felt like Andrea's (my roomie) pet since sometimes she had to "dumb down" the questions to simple Spanish! It was cute b/c she was so protective of me and wouldn't let ANYONE speak English to me. We went out later with just a few of them to a few bars and again it was GREAT practice. However, since the bars were all local Spanish places, she got a kick out of me pretending I didn't speak Spanish to the guys who were trying to talk to me because I was an American. It gets annoying after a while. Anyways, Andrea randomly announced early this week in the kitchen "cebolla [sa-boy-a]" which means "onion" while holding it up. I told her I actually knew that word, but thanks. I was so confused because she kept saying it over and over and finally was like "Bailey, 'cebolla' where my SISTER is! I'm going there for Christmas!!!" I was DYING of laughter since her sister is in SHEBOYGAN! That would have taken me YEARS to figure out but I sure got a taste of my own medicine...they must feel like that everytime I open my mouth.

News of the week:
I finally mastered my break-dance move for my capoiera class....some kids are still on cartwheels so I'm like on cloud nine! Even the Spanish and French kids could tell I was excited when I was on my head going "oh my God, yes....yes...I'm doing it...ahhhh!!!"
I had my first dream in Spanish which means my mind is slowly adjusting...just not as fast as I'd like.
I joined a basketball team here so I need to learn all the Spanish commands ASAP (i.e pass it, I'm open, shoot, etc...)

Nothing too excting but I'll keep ya posted.

I wish I was HOME....

I haven't had a single moment that I wished I was at home until right now....my little brother Callan got his first job and my mom went in to see him at work. Here is the picture of Callan and my mom at Callan's new job.

Seriously how the "H-E-double hockey sticks" did I miss this?!?!?!?!?!?!

gutten tag!

Bavarian Castle
In Hainburg, Lena's town
Me, a Lamborgini, and a Prada in the same picture!
Elke, Lena, and Me
Frankfurt Skyline

Hey all!

I'm back from my amazing weekend in Germany. I am totally in love with the easy transportation here in Europe. Lena, our exchange student, was at the airport Thursday night waiting to pick me up with a white friendship rose. On Friday I awoke to an AMAZING breakfast she had made....my first sit down meal in a long time! Then it was off to Bavaria to see a castle, a bit of Oktoberfest, and to grab a latte at a tiny street cafe. In the afternoon we headed to the town where Lena's mom, Elke, was staying. She's at a spa during her time off of school so Lena and her dad were home alone for a couple weeks. The town was amazing: fall colors, cool temperatures, great hillside views, etc. We went for a hike to a Bavarian cafe and I got to try the Bavarian dumpling! We returned to Frankfurt for dinner with Andreas, Lena's dad, which was at first a bit awkward as he speaks NO English. By Sunday, though, we were best buddies! Friday night we went clubbing German style and spent the day Saturday on tour of Frankfurt. The weather was so nice we even went for a walk along the Main River and had dinner again with Andreas. I have no idea how we got so much crammed into one weekend, but it was amazing! Saying goodbye to them was almost as hard as saying goodbye to my own family since both Lena and her mom have lived with us in the states and they treated me like a queen for the weekend! In fact, I had so much fun I am thinking about going back in December for their Christmas Market as they all said Germany as Christmas is impossible to miss. We'll see...with flights as cheap as 50 bucks it might be worth it!



Last night I had my first "intercambio" or language exchange meeting with a woman from Madrid. She wanted to practice her English and I need to practice my Spanish so we went for tapas at a few different places. She wants to show me some places in the city so I'm not one to turn down Spanish friendship!



I also started teaching Lengua Inglesa II (second year English) at the university today. It was so funny to see all the Spanish kids in my shoes! I started by telling them all about my "naked milk" and "cheek kissing" stories so that they would know that I know EXACTLY how they feel. I have about 30 students in my class, most from Spain and between ages 19-27, and a few of them came up after class to ask if I wanted to hang out with them sometime. I was so pumped; I guess I'm just THAT cool!!! And then I realized that clearly they all just want A's....haha!

Week in Review

The "bullfight" of the decade!

(wish I knew why it was so good)

Bull fight "Plaza de torros (bulls)"

Hey All-



Well, this week has been crazy busy so I'll fill ya in with the short version.



Sat AM: I spent Saturday morning at the bullfights! One of the matadors had like the "fight" of his life and we got to see history made as he was carried out on the shoulders of some people through the "big door" of the plaza. I don't know what that meant, but it was all over the news b/c it's really rare! So that was great.



Sat PM: My fever spiked and I was feeling miserable after being sick all week. My lymph nodes were painful to the touch so I caved and went to urgent care at night. I WAS so proud of myself for getting it all figured out in Spanish. AND I had no idea that medical care AND medicine is free in Spain!!! I thought they were kidding...whole thing took 20 minz and the clinic is off my street....I was kicking myself for waiting so long! FREE...it really made the US look pathetic!



Sun: Spent the afternoon in Retiro Park "people watching" with some friends.



Weekdays: Classes have been good. I start working as a TA in the English department next week and I still have Capoeira class Monday and Wednesday. I'm thinking about joining am indoor soccer team but I don't know how much time I'll have...I'm pretty much always busy now (oh because I'm running lots now because I signed up for the Madrid Marathon in the spring!!!)



Thursday-Sunday: I'm leaving tomorrow for Germany to visit our exchange student Lena and her family. It's my first Euro trip and I'm excited to be getting away for a bit. It's a good time to leave, too. Tension are a little high in Spain right now as there were a few terrorist attacks in the northern part of the country this week and there is some unrealted tension with the royal family as well. I think everyone's a little on edge. Not that it's dangerous, it's all politically motived Basque stuff but still has everyone a little worried about the whole "wrong place, wrong time" thing.



I'll keep you posted on the trip!

a "chill" night on the town!

Spanish Senate building
Where the Spanish started the War of Independencia vs. Napoleon

Me in front of the Palacio Real

Madrid's first Plaza Mayor, built in the 1500's

My friend Liz and I decided today that we were going to spend the night "chilling" in Madrid. I met her at her house a few blocks from where live. She lives with a family of two older Spanish woman, a mother and daughter. That's usually a common set-up in Madrid, the "senoras" rent out rooms to make money as most are widows who are too old to work. Rather than give you a detailed description of our night, I'm going to try to do it in a "touristic" sort of way so you learn a little about the city. First, we headed south towards the "downtown". Liz and I live in northern barrios of the city so our area is newer (think last 200 years). The "downtown" is really the central/southern part of the city in relation to us. The "downtown" is centered around the Plaza Mayor, a lot of government buildings, old churches, and basically "old Madrid" in general (think 500 years ago). It is also where many of the night clubs, bars, etc. are now. We ended up grabbing dinner around 10pm at a place called "pans" (much like a panera..."pan" means bread, get it?). Dinner here is usually around 10pm for everyone and it's common to see little kids out on the street at midnight. Here, afternoon doesn't start until 2pm or later and "night" doesn't start until after dinner. Often people will say "good afternoon" to me at 8-9pm and it is totally dark outside! Anyways, after that we headed a few blocks west and we were in the "governmental" area of town. We took a look at the Palacio Real (royal palace), the local basilica, and even the senate building. It was really neat to see so much history in one place. The royal palace doesn't house the royal family anymore. In fact, the king is starting to lose face with the Spaniards as much of the youth don't believe in an inherited governmental position. After Franco's reign ended in 1975, the government became a "parlimental monarchy". This means decisions are made by congress and the senate, there is still an elected president, but the king is more of a political figure of support. He has no power, in reality, but exisits more as a tradition. Today, Spaniards are calling for a complete republic, meaning everyone will be voted into office (hence, no monarchy) as they don't like their tax dollars paying for his lifestyle without being voted into office. On a side note, the palacio real was also the site where Napoleon tried to put a French king on the throne in 1808, but the Spaniards rebelled and rushed the palace. It inspired Goya's famous paintings, The 2nd of May 1808 and The 3rd of May 1808, both of which I saw at the Prado museum last week. Wow, so there's your Spanish history lesson for the day :) It seems like everywhere you go here there is some historical meaning behind the location which is really neat.

In sticking with the tradition of having a sense of humor:
Funny story: As you may or may not know, Spanish men are known to be a "bit" forward. This could inspire like a million other stories but I'll keep it simple. Sometimes it can get annoying, but most of the time I have no idea what they're saying anyways when they make their "peliropas" (like cat-calls?) so I could care less, especially since 60% of them have a mullet...keep it moving, buddy! Well, I got a wrong-number phone call the other day and could barely understand what this guy was saying. When I got off the phone, I was telling the girls that he actually sounded nice, I thought he said he worked with blind people! The convo went somethin like this: "Bailey, what exactly did he say?" "Well, I couldn't tell for sure, but something about "disfuto las citas a ciego" which I could only roughly translate as "enjoying something with blind people." Turns out the dude "would enjoy a blind date!"....I must have laughed for an hour at myself after this one. Just knowing the word "blind" doesn't help too much! LEARN SPANISH ALREADY, Bailey! haha

a haircut...in spanish

Well, I took the leap and got a trim today! I practiced what I was going to say about a million times: "Please, just cut the ends one inch. That is like two fingers. I am an American. No mullet, please. Thank you very much. No mullet." (but in Spanish, clearly.) The "mullet" is all the rage in Europe right now (now you wish you were all here!). I was terrified something would go wrong, a brain surgery would have been less frightening than my haircut today! But, in the end it all worked out. When I got back to the house I was having lunch with the roomies when my cell phone rang, it was my friends talking in English. My roomie asked in SPANISH who it was so I said "Oh, I can't really hear them but I think it's my friends because they're talking in English." About 30 seconds later I came out of my room to ask my roomie if I had said that in English. Yup! Awesome. At least I asked for naked milk in Spanish!

In other news, I bought my first pair of skinny jeans. I caved and I just lost like 8 friends because of it. I got sick of standing out in Spain so I'm trying to "blend". That's the excuse I'm using, anyways. They're from Penelope Cruz's store, Mango, because you know what they say "when in Spain....."

Funny story #something: I'm taking Capoeira. Youtube it and then you'll see why this is so funny.

A 21st in Madrid

My roomie, Sandra, and I and my 21 in candles :)

Jessica, Me, and Michael in my apt.
The girls at the Chinese dinner

Well, I survived my 21st birthday in Madrid. The day started with 2 exams and a paper due so I spent the next few hours napping. Aren't I an excting birthday girl? However, as a great aficionada of naps, I would have to say that it was a GREAT nap! Here's the best part, though. When I got back from classes, my roommates had blown up 21 balloons, drawns Picasso faces on all of them, and even bought me some little gifts! They came into the family room singing "feliz cumpleanos" with a few "happy birthdays" thrown in! Considering I only moved in two weeks ago and can barely talk, they sure are amazing roomies! After my nap, about 8 Americans came over to my apartment for a few drinks. We had a great time and then headed out for Chinese food nearby. After dinner we made a quick stop home where my roomie and her boyfriend had yet ANOTHER surprise. This time it was Tiramisu and they had even bought those #'d birthday candles for me!!!! They had made it for all 8 of the Americans...how sweet, hey? We spent the rest of the night/morning at a few bars and clubs in the downtown area. Since we didn't leave until the metro opened at 7am, I think we all slept in until the late afternoon the next day! Last night I went with my friend Rebekah to see "Sin Reservas". I'm not sure what the movie is in English but translated it's "Without Reservations". It was so much fun since the whole thing was dubbed in Spanish and I could ACTUALLY understand it!!! That's a good sign of progress. We have off of school tomorrow...I don't know what Saints Day it is but I'm sure it's somebody! Then the University officially opens on Tuesday (I had been in summer school before). Wish me luck!

enough already!

I did it again. I had 7 Americans over studying at my apartment and my roommates joined us. One roommate was explaining our notes on Spanish Architecture when I MEANT to asked her "What do you call this? Abside (alter of a church)?" but instead said "What do you call this? Aseos?" Well, I learned both words this week, 'abside' and 'aseos', but it turns out "aseos" are toilets. Yes, Bailey. Those are the toilets in the front of the church. After the laughter subsided, their first question for me was if the exam tomorrow was in English. what does that tell you???? In between EVERYONE'S spurts of laughter my roommates both announced, in ENGLISH mind you, "Bailey... you no say ASESOS tomorrow in exam, okay? NO ASESOS!" I should point out that I also learned the Spanish word for SOB tonight, too :) We all had a good laugh and seriously, my roomies are reallllly great! I'm super lucky to be living where I am.....we even had ate ice cream from the container and watched Friends this afternoon together... amigos are amigos everywhere in the world :)

Now I have a huge paper due Friday and three exams between today and tomorrow. I am looking forward to getting done with them as Friday is also my 21st b-day and we have a 3 day weeked so we'll see what I end up doing. It's been one heck of a crazy year, that's for sure, and I'm just glad to be here to see another one. When I think of all that's happened in the past year, it's amazing to think what another year will bring and all that I will see, do, and learn in the next 365 days :) Thanks for sharing some of the past 365 with me!!!

La noche en blanca

At the Teatro
For my Dad! :)
At the Prado after being trapped by the Tour de Espana
In front of the Prado Museo

Well- you all mised an incredible weekend here in Madrid. I spent Saturday out on a walk with my friend Liz from Marquette and we talked and went "people watching" in a park for a few hours. It was classic Europe: sitting outside a little cafe, sipping our cokes, an acordion player, kids out in the park...just perfect. That night my roommates took the two of us to "La noche in blanca" which is the phrase for an "all nighter". The top 5 major European cities have this night where all cultural activities in the city are free. We went to an interpretive dance in a really nice theater in town (see picture above). Then, my roommates treated the two of us to REAL tapas with REAL Spaniards. It was a lot of fun and great practice for learning the language. Everyday the 3 of us who are home eat lunch and watch what I call "AMIGOS" even though the translation is still "FRIENDS". Nothing makes you feel more at home then Joey, Chandler, Pheobe, Ross, Rachael, and Monica!

I'm taking a Caopoiera (sp?) sports class here at the University in the evenings. It's a type of Brasilian dance/fighting and since I can't even SAY the word, I'm sure I'll have many stories once that starts.

The other pictures above are from Sunday when I went to the Prado since it's free to the public!
We got there and the whole street was roped off for some stupid bike race so we were stuck and had to watch it until they finished. Turns out, that "stupid race" was the 2nd of 3 major Euro Cup races (one of which you all know as the Tour de Frace!!!!) It had been a 3 week race and we caught the finish line by mistake and all the heliopters, spectators, etc....my luck!

Funny Story #?: I keep getting the word "tu" which means "you" confused with "me". When people keep asking "Tu eres de los EEUU?" or "Are you from the US?" I keep thinking they're saying "I'm from the US" so I went through about 5 days where I kept thinking everyone I met was from the US. I couldn't BELIEVE how well everyone had learned the language. No wonder they were confused when my answer to the question was "Wow, really....you speak really well!!!" I also kept saying "Have I____?" instead of saying "Have you______?" So I kept trying to ask questions like "Have you seen the film Volver?" and it was coming out as "Have I seen the film Volver?" My roommates kept saying "I don't know!!!!!" and I thought THEY were stupid. haha oh man. 10 more months. I wish you were all here to see my face when I realize all of my mistakes...I laugh by myself for about 3 minutes.

those stupid kisses!

So, you know how I wrote about how when you meet someone you need to kiss them on both cheeks...well again the drama continues. Ok, so by now, I've met so many people (thus kissed them all twice) that I'd def. be called a "skank" in the US. I'm kind of getting the hang of it by now except today was THE WORST! I was out for a run in the local park and got back to my apt. (can you see where this is going?). I was super sweaty and gross and just ready for a shower when I walked in to find my roomie having a really nice lunch with her friends. They all stand up. I know what comes next. And I think just about every bad word in BOTH dictionaries were going through my head. Yup, that's right. I had to kiss them all being sweaty and gross and I didn't even know how to apologize. GROSS! Those poor people, I felt so bad.

Besides that horror, things are well. Tonight my roomies are taking me to La Noche en Blanca which is where all the musuems are open all night so that should be fun being out all night in Madrid with madrilenos. Right now I'm off to study in Retiro Park (like the Central Park of Europe). If I leave you with one thought of the day: Be glad all you have to do is shake hands in the states!!!!!!!!!!!!

SMALL small world

The above is a random picture in the metro station. Jessica, the girl in pink, told us that is you take a picture while making that tugboat noise, your lips look all crazy so of course....I HAD to try it!

The other day a few of us went to a meeting on the East side of the city about volunteering. When I got back to the apartment, I had an email from a friend of mine from high school. He asked if I was currently in Spain because he was pretty sure he had seen me in the Moncoloa Metro Station. Can you imagine... 4000 miles away from home, we haven't seen each other since graduation, and NOW we run into each other in Madrid! The same night, I came back to meet my third roommate. The first thing she said was "you're from Wisconsin, right?" I was impressed she even knew the state....gets better. Her little sister is studying in Sheboygan right now so my roomie knew all about Lago Michigan, etc. What a small, small world!

I'm off for tapas with a friend of mine who lives across the street so that's it for now. Hasta pronto!

For the 'rents...

Since I haven't had internet, I haven't sent home any pictures so here are a few at popular tourist destinations. The city was "blanca" today as Spain lost the European basketball championship by one point last night. Sports stuff like that is a HUGE deal here and even our professors were upset today. I couldn't help but think the very first Spaniard I ever talked to was the Spanish b-ball star Pau Gasol who missed the last shot last night. I think my roommates thought I was lying when I said that I had met him a few years ago. With my luck, translating "ball girl" could go VERY wrong so I just left it at that..

Apartment

Well I'm all moved in and spending my first night in my new apt. here in Madrid. Can you believe that these next 10 months will be the longest I've lived in just once place in the last three years?!? I just loved putting my suitcase under my bed knowing I won't be using it for another month until I go to Germany:) When I got back from dinner, my roommate and her boyfriend were watching the Spanish B-Ball team play Russia and I was pretty sure my brother was doing the same thing in the US today! It's really nice to be able to have free Spanish tutors on call 24/7, as well, except it's a bit hard when I don't know a word b/c they know almost no English.

I've finally got internet connection so if any of you have SKYPE let me know. I'm on under bcurtis45 and would love to chat with you guys.

Funny Story #3: Up until yesterday, I thought all these people were saying "hello" to me when I passed them. I didn't understand their funny looks when I said "hello" back. Well, turns out they were all saying "hasta lluego" really, really fast and slurred as they do here in Spain. "Hasta lluego" means "see you later" in Spanish and here I was saying "hello" back to them in ENGLISH.....duh!!!!!