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!!!!!

Ikea España!

Last night a few of us girls came across this sign for ¨Parque Warner Madrid¨and we couldn´t pass it up!

Since tomorrow is my big move in day, I spent the day at IKEA-Madrid. It took almost an hour by metro to get there, but I was able to get cheap sheets, pillow, lamp, light bulbs, hangers, etc. I´ll keep you posted as to how move in goes tomorrow, doing it by way of metro is going to be an experience.

the grocery store

Yesterday was a rough day.

1. I went to the grocery store last night and asked for ¨leche desnudo¨instead of ¨leche desnatado¨.
Translation: I asked for ¨naked milk¨instead of ¨skim milk¨. Ouch.

2. Then, I finally came to the realization that the fall fad for Europe is going to be ¨skinny¨ jeans...enough said. Ouch.

Rough day, rough day... hahaha.

Practical Spanish

Well, classes are in full swing now and the homework and quizes are piling up. Before I get going on some of that stuff, I had to share with you the oddest experience I´ve had here so far.

First, let me set the scene a bit. There are about 30 Americans staying at the University dorm (which is really more like a hotel) and the other half are Spanish students. The groups are a bit segregated, but between the 60 or so of us in the dorm we all reconginze each other, etc. Well, the other night a few of us girls were in my friend Katie´s room hanging out and chatting when she got a call on her room phone. The man said it was the front desk and asked her to stop smoking. She did her best to explain in Spanish that this was an American room and that we don´t smoke, nor were there candles or anything of the sort. However, he kept asking to stop producing smoke in the room and finally settled with her opening a window. By now, the rest of us thought she HAD to have mis-translated something because this story was making no sense. Either way, we opened a window and forgot about it.

Well, later that night after we all were back in our own rooms and Katie was asleep, a Spanish student came to the door, knocked , and greeted a Katie with an odd surprise. He was standing in the doorway with a sign reading ¨Por favor, stop smoking¨ and was wearing a George W Bush facemask! Can you imagine? He didn´t say anything and just walked away. None of us know what this means, but it´s pretty odd either way. Thought I´d share that rondom bit before this studying.
And as our prof. pointed out, we´re thinking of you all back at home on this Sept. 11th! sense.

Weekend

Hola, Gang!

Well, I´ve started to move my stuff into my apartment slowly, but I won´t move in fully until next weekend when they stop feeding us for free in the dorm....clearly I´ve never been one to turn down free food. I´ve been slowly stealing roles of toilet paper, too, to use in the apartment so that I won´t have to buy any. What can I say?

I already booked my first two trips. On to Germany in October to visit our exchange student Lena and one to visit my awesome cousin Katie who is having me in Amsterdam Oct. 31-Nov. 4. I´m super excited for both of the trips, gives me something to look forward to.

Last night was my first night out on the town here. It was a bit hard since ALL 20 of the Americans went together, but it was still pretty fun. The students here don´t go out until midnight at the earliest so we were out until 6am (and that was early!)....finally a country who ¨gets me¨! Stay up all night, nap all day...what more could I ask for?

As for now, I´ve been focusing hard on saying all the stores I will visit here in Spain phonetically, as the Spaniards say them. Here is a list for you to try and figure out:
es-tar-booocks.
ka-efe-se.
macdoo-nal-ds.
boo-ger keeng.



(Starbucks, KFC, McDonalds, Burger King...all of which are located in Madrid!)

Piso Hunt

Hola from Madrid, Amigos!

Well you´ll be happy to know that I found an apartment. It´s with three other Spanish girls around my age, in the ¨mixed¨neighborhood (meaning immigrants, older Spaniards, college kids, etc.) so the price is right! I´m withing two blocks of the fresh produce market, the supermarket, the church, a park, and the metro stop is 10m from my front door....and most importantly, the McDonalds! Haha, tough to beat in my opinion. I even get my own TV in my room and WiFi internet which is hard to come by here! Pretty lucky if you ask me, but at the same time I´m just happy with a roof over my head. I´ll be moving into my apartment within the next week or so and will then be able to use my own computer to upload a few photos.

My weekend was filled with the ¨piso¨ (or shared apartment) hunt. The first few phone calls were hard to make as I still don´t understand much of the ¨Spain¨Spanish with the lisp and all. Last night, I went to the Plaze de España with some of the kids from the Marquette program. Turns out one of them was the girl I was told to look for who knows one of my really good friends and when I gave her the name of a few other people I knew at MU, the first person I named was her boyfriend....talk about a small world!

I have also discovered that I was Spanish in a past life. Here, everyone stays up until the odd hours of the morning, sleeps in, eat a late lunch, an even later dinner at 10, and somehow they make time for a nap in the middle of the day! The entire city closes from 2-5 to eat and sleep....EAT AND SLEEP....... in the MIDDLE of the DAY! Ha, I was just living on the wrong side of the pond all these years!

Funny Story Numero Dos: The ¨besito¨. So in Spain, it´s common (and necessary) that when you meet someone or greet them you lean in and give them a kiss or ´besito´on the right cheek, then the left. Well stupid me...when the first door to the apartment opened I went to shake hands with the girl as she learned in for the peck. I was so startled that I forgot to move my hand and poked her right in the stomach!!! Then, I felt like such an idiot I couldn´t remember how to apologize and was stuttering. Ha, all I could do was laugh. Subsequently, I have now learned the Spanish word for AWKWARD.

The Metro

Buenos Dias Amigas!

Well, these first few days have been a whirlwind of activity. So far, I´ve been trying to keep this thing updated, but that might start slipping as I start the apartment hunt and registration for classes. Monday starts my first intensive culture course which is a 4 hour morning class about Spanish culture, politics, art, history, and language. It also will be the first day I need to find a place to live so I think I´ll be getting busy for a few weeks at least. ¨Real¨ classes start October 2nd so then I´ll be a little less stressed.

As for now, it feels a little like being a freshman in Madison: learning about a new city, where things are, etc. First (and most importantly) I´ve already scoped out EVERY SINGLE super-marcado (supermarket) in the area. Cearly, we all know where my priorities lie when I move to a new place. BUT, you´ll be happy to know the food is very similar to the US, and I even saw a McDonalds with a walk-through window (we don´t even have those in the US!). I also went to the local market which is all fresh produce. I was shocked at how cheap everything was: fish, bread, veggies, fruit, etc. It seemed VERY fresh so hopefully I´ll be able to get most of my food there once I have a place.

Funny Story numero uno: I´ll call this ´The metro´. The first day we were here, a few of us girls decided to go to the local department store. Seeing as it was a few miles away we took the metro. WELL....the line we needed was a circular one and our stop was only two stops down the away. What we DIDNT understand was that there were two trains running opposite directions on the circle. So, we hoped on the first one we saw and were off. After about 10 stops and 20 minutes we realized this wasn´t right. Turns out we had taken a left instead of a right on the stairs at the station and we ended up traveling the wrong way on the cirle. Instead of going two stops down, we went all 28 around the OTHER way! After that hour (instead of 4 minutes) we at least felt like we got out Euro worth. But now I know how to use the metro...