Madrid moves with an energy that borders on chaos. The people talk a million miles an hour, cars drive where ever they like almost, and men are handing out fliers like Bruin Walk on a bad day. The first night I was here, my roommate in the Hotel Husa Princessa, Nikki, and I tried to find something to eat. We walked down the block and didn't really find anything that wouldn't drain our life savings so we stopped and this place that had food for under 10 euro. We couldn't read the menu (sad, I know) but the nice guy helped us out and we soon realized that you just picked your meat, they grilled it and you put either tomatoes on it or some sauce. We picked tomatoes so he put tomatoes on top and then put it all in between two big white rolls and that was that. Nevertheless, it wasn't the most exciting meal I've ever had but it was food, it was cheap, and the guys were nice. Oh and did I mention no one cards me here nor even cares how old you are? I am officially legal.
El proximo dia, despues de dormir por 12 horas, I woke up and it was a pretty uneventful day as the rest of the people in the program were arriving that day. We met our program directors and had a meeting. The whole thing was in Spanish. They said they were only going to speak in "espanish" and we should too.
Today, we all went to the Museum del Prado which was great!! Our tour guide taught us about El Greco, Franscisco de Goya, and Deigo Velazquez, all in Spanish. I was excited that I understood about 85-90% of what she said. Goya in particular was fascinating. Not only did he paint the Spanish royal family of Carlos IV, he also painted political commentary of sorts, along with paintings about his personal life. For example, Perro semihundido ,
literally "dog semisunk"
http://www.espanolsinfronteras.com/im%C3%A1genes/%C3%8Dndice%20de%20Biograf%C3%ADas%20-%20Francisco%20de%20Goya%20-%20Perro%20semihundido.jpg
is a painting of a dog's head and head among obscurity. Goya is representing the Spanish people at war with the French and their reluctance to do so, hence the submerged, overwhelmed dog. Another example, and my favorite of Goya's that we saw was the saturno devorando
http://www.filmica.com/port666/Saturno_devorando_a_sus_hijos.jpg
It's gruesome but bear with me...
In Goya's time, there was a story about Saturn who would eat each one of his children because he was afraid of them overthrowing him. Goya had a serious illness that prevented him from ever having children and he was very bitter about this so he painted Saturn eating his children in this painting because Goya felt like Saturn. Tragically fascinating....
Today I learned not to walk around with girls wearing uncomfortable shoes because they WILL without a doubt whine and complain.
Tomorrow, we head for El Escorial, an historic town outside Madrid, then to Toledo for a day.
As for Spanish, it is thrilling to be completely surrounded by it but also very intimidating. I have been speaking a lot but I think quite brokenly. I pick up more and more every day. So far so good.
|  | 
|
