Quick Update

So it's taken me about this long to recover but Madrid was really great. We did all of the required touristy things, including going to the Prado (so big and I'll be honest, a little repetative, I wish I appreciated art more), the Reina Sofia (awesome, awesome, awesome, we should go back here), the Palacio Real (also awesome, I was imaging what it would be like to live there when it housed actually royalty- I feel like they would have had to change their outfits to match the different rooms, that's how loud some of the decor was), and the Catedral (where Prince Felipe and his wife were married). The Moscow Ballet Company was performing Swan Lake at this beautiful theater and I wanted to go so so badly, I mean that would be amazing, but the tickets were about 80 euro so we kind of had to opt out.

I went to Starbucks for breakfast on Sunday, don't judge me, it was delicious and I was missing my fru-fru coffee. Saturday night a bunch of my friends went to this discoteco called Kapital- 5 stories high with a different theme on each floor. 20 euro to get in after 1:30, which is ridiculous and you would only find prices like that in Madrid, which is one of the most expensive cities I've been to. Other than the big pulls like the museums and the food, Madrid is basically just another big city. For a second, I felt like I could have been in Chicago, but then I looked up at the buildings and was amazed at how the most mundane-looking store fronts can actually be part of some of the most beautiful architecture. The facades were so intricate and it was really breathtaking. Anyway though, I didn't go to Kapital because I feel like I'm about to get a cold and I didn't want to speed up the process by drinking and staying up until 6 or 7, although I'm sure that would have been a lot of fun.

So Madrid was good, but I'm having a hard time gushing over it because in less than 48 hours,

I WILL BE IN PARIS.

There are no words for how excited I am. Paris. My whole life I've wanted to go to Paris, and on Friday...I'LL BE THERE!!! Paul sent me a list of things we're going to do and I literally got butterflies from excitement. This is incredible. In less than 48 hours I will be seeing things I've wanted to see my whole life and I will be surrounded by people speaking in beautiful, prefect,  fluent French and I'll be skipping around singing "Aux Champs-Elysees" (that's for you Bobby). Probably not the last part, but I can't wait to see Notre Dame and the Arc de Triomphe and the Moulin Rouge and Versailles and everything. Still deciding about the Louvre.. I'm going to take millions of pictures and when I get back I'll post them (along with the slightly less incredible and exciting pictures of Madrid). Wish me luck with the terrorist warning, and let's hope that there are no strikes and I can get back to Spain on Monday. Although, I'm going to be in Paris, so that wouldn't be the worst thing ever :)

Au revoir

Tengo muchisimas ganas para viajar a Madrid!

        Tomorrow we're going to Madrid! The bus leaves at like 9:30 in the morning so we'll get there around 2, and guess what our first activity is? A SCAVANGER HUNT! I'm so excited, if you couldn't tell :).

We’re going to be there for two nights, Friday and Saturday, and we get back pretty late Sunday night. I’m ridiculously excited, especially because it will be really nice to get away from here for a couple of days. I love it here, and I know when I leave for longer I’m going to miss it a ton, but I’m definitely ready for a break in the routine. Plus, we’re staying in a really, really nice hotel and we have plenty of free time to get to know the less museum-y party of the city.

            Which is not to say I’m not looking forward to the museums; our teachers have been getting us pumped this whole week to visit the Prado Museum. It’s supposed to be on the best museums in the world as far as paintings go, although that is the word of a Spaniard and they are extremely, sometimes blindingly, afraid of the culture (most of the time though, I can see where they’re coming from). So that’s the most exciting thing going on right now, we have a 5 hour bus ride so I’m looking forward to playing some games on the bus too (might have to teach everyone the animal game??) Also, Dad, if you read this in time, do you remember any of those riddles you used to tell us on car rides to games? Because my friend Nick and I were talking about them the other day—I was surprised to learn that other people had heard them—but neither one of us could remember the details and we wanted to tell them to everyone else.

            Going back to what I just said about Spanish culture being awesome—it is. However, I’m having a pretty difficult time with one aspect of it, something that surprises me a lot because it’s not something I would’ve foreseen being a problem. Spain has a very old-fashioned view of gender equality. When I say old-fashioned I mean compared to the United States because I know that there are so many places which are a million times worse than here, I’m just saying, it really surprises me. There are women with high-paying jobs and jobs that are rather high up in authority, but they are the anomaly, and that traditionalism carries down through the entire social hierarchy. For example, women here are always, always very feminine. Any girl who doesn’t have her hair perfectly set or have a pound of make-up on and a perfectly arranged outfit stands out here. Beyond that, when my friend Rachel and I go running, we are among the only women doing any sort of exercise. Not that I’m surprised because the amount of cat-calling and staring that we attract is almost beyond withstanding. I asked my madre about this and she said that most of the women exercise inside, in gyms or especially in classes like Pilates or yoga or spinning, which are mostly made up solely of women. I understand that it’s their culture, and I am trying to assimilate into the culture, but that is one aspect that I will not be accepting of. Women here are objectified, and I’ve never been prouder of the United States than I am when I think of how Americans would respond to that sort of behavior. I know we still have a million problems and were nowhere near perfect when it comes to gender equality, but we’re working toward it at least, and I’m proud of us J. Sorry, just had to vent for a bit about that.

            I’m looking Spain though. When Rachel and I are far enough away from the busier streets and are in the campo—where there aren’t as many people (read: sexist men) we can appreciate how awesome it is that we are running in Spain. In Spain! We’re in Spain! It’s truly beautiful, and we always end up talking about how lucky we are to be in such a wonderful place with all of the many opportunities it has to offer.

            Rachel thinks she’s hitting the bottom of her W curve right now, so I’m a little nervous that my time is going to be coming up soon too. Before our run yesterday she said she had been close to tears the whole day and just wanted to go to sleep or watch a movie in bed by herself. During our nighttime run though, we talked about everrrryything that we we’re both experiencing and did a little (okay, kind of a lot) of complaining, but afterward we both felt a million times better and she said she was really glad we went, even though she was dreading. So maybe we’ve found the cure for the W curve: endorphins! I love psychology!

            I’ll take lots of pictures in Madrid and I’ll tell you all about it when I get back! Mom- you we’re in my dream last night, you came to visit and you were mad at me because you thought I didn’t remember you. Don’t worry though, we worked it out haha.

            Miss you guys!

p.s. Mark, I know YOU weren’t a dork. My parents on the other hand…J

I live in Spain.

¡Buenos días!

Ciao a tutti!

 Sorry it's been so long, it's just that nothing super exciting has happened recently; I've just been settling into my routine of classes and homework and hanging out with the other people in the program.
   I know you guys have talked about this before, but I can't remember if you said you were friends with everyone in your program before you left or if there were some people you were meeting and getting to know after you got to Germany. For me, its basically all the latter (with one or two exceptions) because even the couple of people I did know bfore coming here, I only got to know at the very end of spring quarter so I still don't know them very well and vice versa. The point of that rambling is that it's been really fun getting to know peope on the trip, expeially because we probably never would have become friends back at K. Also, it's funny to realize that every single one of us is actually just a huge dork--I mean, we all go to Kalamazoo College!
   My host sister gave birth about a week and a half ago (she doesn't live with us) and I got to meet him for the first time last night! So beautiful and tiny! I can't remember if I told you about all of the people living here right now for the occasion, including an 11mo. year old baby girl and a 5 yr. old boy but they've been here with their parents (my other host sister and her husband) for about 2 weeks. They're very nice and the kids are very cute, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't slightly relieved that they're leaving tomorrow. It's just pretty chaotic, and they're all sick and I'm pretty sure I've caught whatever it is they have, so I've just been sleeping a lot recently.
   As far as my Spanish goes, I think it's improving, but right now I'm just a little frustrated with it because there are always words that I forget, or things that I want to say but am too nervous to or don't remember how to conjugate the verb. It is better than when I got here though, so at least there's some improvement! My Engish is getting worse though I think haha.
 Big news! There is this thing called National Novel Writing Month, and it takes place in November and the goal is to write a novel (first draft, no editing) of 50,000 words over the course of 30 days. Sounds impossible, I know, and I might not finish it, but my friend Nick and I are going to try it! So I'll keep you updated on how thats going! Also, if you're wondering, I'm going to be writing it in English :)
  I'm also realizing how hard it is to keep in touch with everyone who isn't here. I'm going to try to pick a specific day a week to write and e-mail and update pictures for everyone, but it's hard to find the perfect time to do it each week. I'll do my best though!
  Love and miss you all very much!

Drinking and Partying

Okay so the botellón on Thursday was so much fun. Apparently Thursday is the night that everyone goes out here because no one has classes on Fridays (except me, I’m taking Italian). Sorry to disappoint you guys but I actually didn’t partake in any drinking on Thursday because I had class and I’m pretty sure everyone else I was with made up for it because a lot of people were pretty drunk. But I met some students from England who were very cool, made friends with some Spanish girls I have a class with and then met this Italian girl who couldn’t really speak Spanish or English so the English guy I met was translating for us because he can speak Italian. So the point I’m making is that it was really cool because there were people from all over all hanging out and having a good time.

My Italian class on Friday was awesome, the professor is a little crazy but I really like him. He speaks in Italian for the whole class but most of it is so much like Spanish that I can’t really tell the difference, I’m hoping that’s a good thing haha. We’ve been having a lot of down time so I was getting a little restless yesterday from just being in the house all day so I went with a couple of the girls down to the Plaza Mayor to look in the shops and stuff which was really fun. I’m becoming friends with this girl Colleen who I’d literally never seen before coming here but she is so cool and we get along really well.

Last night there was another botellon and we bought wine and fanta, because everyone here mixes them together and says it tastes like sangria. Not sure if I buy that but it definitely does taste good so I’m okay with it. There were a lot less people than on Thursday but it was still really fun. One of the girls in our group though was really drunk and it was kind of an uncomfortable situation because she’s not really good friends with anyone so we sort of all ended up taking care of here which was fine, but I think she’s pretty embarrassed about it today. So after the botellon, we took the bus back to the Plaza and walked a ways to this club that everyone likes (mostly because its free to get in). We were there for awhile (probably until about 3 or 3:30) and then we all walked each other home. It was a lot of fun and I really like the weekends, but I’m also very excited for the first full week of classes to start tomorrow! Colleen and I are going to go walk up the mountain maybe, even though its raining and kind of chilly (good thing I have a great great raincoat!)

Luego J