¡Real Madrid!

Went to a futbol game last night! It was Real Madrid versus Bilbao Athletic Club, and it was an excellent. Bilbao has a reputation for violence, and they did not disappoint. We saw a number of yellow cards, one red card, and a penalty. Also, for heaven's sake. All the players totally ham it up when they fall or get knocked over. One guy went down and lay there like writhing and moaning until the medics ran over, then he hopped up and was fine. They all just want penalties. Of course Real Madrid won (I mean, they are "Real" (which means "royal")).

Either way, fun was had by all. There was a large (school?) group of Brits in front of us who were really enjoying it (if one defines "enjoy" as throwing things at everyone and blowing horns). Suzannah got a boss new scarf (for her bro, I believe), and now I'm a little sad I didn't also (although I have no brother). Maybe I'll find on at the Rastro...or go to another game! I'll just have to scare up another 40 euros (pricey, huh?). But totally worth it!

¿appletinis?

stronger than one might think.

Part 1 of the 97 part series on private education in Spain: an introduction

So I have one class at a private Spanish university (Universidad San Pablo CEU). Now, private in Spain isn't like private liberal arts schools in the states. They are pretty much designed to catch the kids who aren't accepted at the much more prestigious (and basically free) public universities, as well as kids from very rich, conservative families who dislike the socialist tilt of the public schools. So basically this a university full of rich, spoiled, conservative kids who either aren't smart enough or don't want to work enough to get into pubic universities. Fun times, right?

Right! Anyway, my class is about contemporary history (which is defined as post French Revolution (the professor spent most of the first class explaining why the American revolution is neither part of nor important to contemporary history)). There is a textbook for the class, however as far as I can tell, no one has yet bought it (myself included). We have not had homework yet in the six weeks of class. There are no reading assignments. No one comes to class and punctuality is apparently not considered very important. And, of course, there is a large crucifix on the wall of the class.

Conclusion: Private education in Spain is awesome.

¡Portugal!

We are now fairly certain that the Portuguese have this game where they give wildly incorrect maps to tourists, then sit in cafes to laugh at the pathetic foreigners scaling small mountains in search of roads that do not exist. We spent the majority of the weekend in Lisboa completely and utterly lost. In fact, on Friday, Lauren and I spent nearly an hour searching out a metro station which turned out to be approximately two minutes from our hostel. Then, as if maps which are filled with the streets which don't exist and none of the streets which do, the whole city is on seven gigantic hills. I'm not talking molehills here. I mean small mountains.

Anyway, all navigational troubles aside, Lisboa is a really beautiful city, in a sort of peculiar, run-down way. It looks as if it hasn't changed or really developed in about 50 years. The buildings are in decay, with cracked plaster and missing tiles. Not to mention the streets are about an inch deep in filth of all sorts. You can barely tell the original color of the sidewalks and many of the buildings. But the whole medieval quarter (which survived a big fire in the late 1700s) is covered with tiles called azulejos, which are patterned on Moorish tiles. We spent most of the weekend finding museums for hours and hours, and a few castles and palaces (of course). Saturday we went to a little pueblo outside of Lisboa called Sintra which was gorgeous! Dios mio. We saw this ridiculous palace which was built by an eccentric millionaire in the early 1900s. Seriously, it was like the wet dream of a twelve year-old Tolkien geek.

(Also, they have ketchup flavored potato chips. Excellent.)

¡Buenos!

Hello all! So, after many obsessively detailed attempts to start up this thing, I finally got it off the ground (I think). I hope it's not too painfully ugly, but it certainly was a lot of work for my limited computing skills. Anyway, as we all may or may not know, I'm spending the year here in Madrid, Spain, which is a glorious city of about 6 million people. I hope to keep this updated at least sporadically with tales of all my exploits (although we all know how reliable I am about stuff like that). Anywho, I miss all you lovely folks in the States and can't wait to see you all again! I'm heading to Salamanca tomorrow (in the western part of the country, near Portugal) and I'll try to check in again when I get back!
¡Love love love!