Vida Diaria

A friend of mine, after reading my blog, told me it sounds like I'm on a four-month vacation over here. To be honest, in some ways he's right. It doesn't quite seem like I'm a part of the real world when I'm here, because of how many opportunities I've had to travel each weekend and see amazing things. This weekend, however, I'm staying in Madrid, so I thought I'd blog about what my life is really like over here between all the travels and fun.

Classes here are very interesting, but probably not as hard as my usual coursework at Wesleyan. I'm finishing up some gen. eds, and taking some courses required by the program, so not a lot of what I'm doing pertains to my major. It's nice to think about other things for a while and have a break from the inevitable heavy reading that comes with history and political science classes. Right now, I'm in a Spanish course, a cultural anthropology course, an international business ethics class, and a philosophy class about Jose Ortega y Gasset, the founder of the Fundacion. I enjoy them all, and I've been able to do tons of reading, writing, and exploring on my own, since the workload isn't too intense.

In between classes, homework, and teaching English lessons, we find time to do some pretty fun things. After school, we often head over to Cafeteria Tana for lunch or cafe con leche before going home. Each night, dinner with Isabel takes some time, and we tend to get into great discussions during sobremesa, Spain's traditional time for sitting around and talking after ever meal. The weather here in Madrid has started to truly feel like springtime. I like to go for walks to Parque del Retiro, Madrid's verison of central park. Sometimes I take my homework there and sit on the bank of the Estanque, the row-boating lake, for the whole afternoon. There's so much to see around town, and some evenings we head to cafe's or bars. One of our favorites has a quiz night on Wednesdays, which we tried out for the first time this week.

From time to time, we also get the chance to experience Madrid's traditions and Spain's culture without traveling too far. Today, we took a short busride to a pueblo ouside Madrid called Chincon. A medieval marketplace festival was taking place there to celebrate Carnaval, the Mardi Gras type celebration that covers Spain throughout this week. Costumes are popular, and Carnaval has become a bit like our Halloween. In Chincon today, the marketplace was full of artisans with awesome handmade products, a falcon trainer, and a band of wandering minstrels. A medieval jester kept trying to joke around with my friend Emily and get her to buy him things. It was hilarious. Then, we took a short donkey ride around town on the "Burro Taxi." After seeing the sights and walking around for a couple of hours, I was hungry enough to try the Sopa Castellano (Castilian soup, consisting more of fat than meat, I think) that they were selling in one-euro bowls from one of the tents. It wasn't bad, as long as I didn't look at it. It was definitely a fun day trip.

Tonight, there's a parade here in Madrid to celebrate carnaval. The sightseeing today has been a welcome change from studying all day yesterday, since midterm exams are coming up this week. It's hard to believe my time in Spain is nearly half-way over. Every day in Madrid makes me enjoy thesubtle aspects of the lifestyle here in different ways. Daily life in Spain provides a completely different perspective than just traveling as a tourist, and it's wonderful.