Blogs from Madrid, District of Madrid, Spain, Europe - page 105

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Europe » Spain » District of Madrid » Madrid September 30th 2007

I had to do that knuckle counting trick (turns out there are only thirty days in September) before confirming that indeed it IS the end of my first month here. Now I just do that about 8 more times and then I'll be back home.. I've decided I'm lucky to have all my appendages. This is for a few reasons outside the generally obvious ones. I've noticed an absurd amount of amputees in Madrid. I'd estimate that I pass by, sit by, buy from, or accidentally stare at at least 10 people a day missing an arm or a leg, or both arms or both legs. I'm wondering if there is any cultural relevance there or if it's a big city thing or if I honestly just now have realized the sheer blessing that it is ... read more

Europe » Spain » District of Madrid » Madrid September 28th 2007

Ater my restfull stay at the Hostel Posada, I packed my bags again and headed across town to the four star hotel in which I was being boarded courtesy of my new employers, for an induction course along with my 600 other colleagues from around the world. Still sore from lugging my bags around the day before, I gingerly picked up my 36kg and marched onwards. Three metro lines, countless metro stairs both ascending and descending, a litre of bottled water, four bruises, half an hour, and one gigantic sigh of relief later, I arrived in the lobby of the Hotel Convencion. After checking into our rooms, and enduring one badly scheduled meeting later. We sat down to a dinner of cold mousse more or less the shape and colour of the italian flag. My friend ... read more

Europe » Spain » District of Madrid » Madrid September 28th 2007

I finally have my own bank account here in Madrid with Caja Madrid, one of the major banks here in Madrid. I just got a new debit card today, so I'll be able to use it around Europe. The process was pretty easy, but I had to pay a 27 euro fee because I'm not a citizen here in Spain. They had to declare me as a temporary resident, not a permanent resident. When you come and stay in a new country, these are the kinds of things you just have to deal with and accept :-) Tonight a bunch of my friends and I will be having dinner, and Ali is fixing some Guatemalan food for everyone, and we'll all have a good time. Did I mention I am going to Morocco the week after ... read more

Europe » Spain » District of Madrid » Madrid September 27th 2007

The Reina Sofia was a lot different than the Prado, for sure. Totally all modern art. I actually enjoyed the Prado more. There were some cool pieces at the Reina though. The Tropical guest exhibit was pretty trippy. I did like all the trippy Dali´s and Picassos though. And yes, the Guernica, is pretty fascinating. From there, I actually wanted to just chill today. I was moving so fast the past few days in Madrid it was time for some more down time. I went shopping and bought a sweater, yay. From there, I was pretty tired so I took my siesta and ended up going up to the Sun Deck at the hostel and rekindling my relationship with my boy, Santiago from The Alchemist. I was definitely engrossed. While on the Sun Deck, I met ... read more

Europe » Spain » District of Madrid » Madrid September 27th 2007

Hola everybody! It’s a bit crazy that September is almost over. My last weeks since my first e-mail have been wonderful. I’ve been meeting many people my age which has been great, but most of them are heading back to college this past weekend. My Co-op at Agenda is going great. I think I expand my vocabulary a lot there… So far I’ve just been learning about how they advertise and why, prices of how much it costs to put an advertisement in any of the newspapers or magazines. Did you know that it costs around 250,000 euros For a 1 page spread in VOGE?? (I think, I can’t quite remember it’s either that or more.) Agenda doesn’t advertise in there, but for the national news paper, it costs somewhere around 30,000 euros. I’ve also been ... read more

Europe » Spain » District of Madrid » Madrid September 27th 2007

6 Minutes to write this from Internet ´room´in Madrid... Having a lot of fun at my training in Madrid. The training in Madrid is boring & the information they´re giving us in nothing more than common sense suggestions on how to teach Spanish. However, they´re paying for our hotel. I have met many international people this week in Madrid. They´re are people from all over doing this program in Spain. I´ve been learning a lot of ´British English´& my friend Emma, whom I´ll be teaching with, claims to occasionally bust out in cockney rhymes...Yikes...I am now proficiently using such vocabulary as ´bloques, cheeky, wanker, etc.´ On Tuesday I sat in on one of my classes I´ll be teaching. A student already got kicked out for misbehaving. Hmm...should be an interesting year. I´m thinking about moving because ... read more

Europe » Spain » District of Madrid » Madrid September 26th 2007

I must say, I´m enjoying Madrid thoroughly. Yesterday I walked over to the Prado museum nice and early. Love the Audioguides. I listened to almost all of the pieces they had recorded. I loved it. Felt sooo cultured viewing all the paintings and sculptures. Lots of Flemish, Spanish, Gothic art. I enjoyed a lot of the Adam and Eve paintings. So many different ways of expressing them and their plight. Highlight for sure was Bosch´s Garden of Earthly delights. You can definitely stare at it for hours. I took my time at this museum and spent a good few hours there. I walked to the Reina Sofia, another museum, but it was actually closed on Tuesdays. Boo. From there, I was going to take the Metro across town to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace), then noticed ... read more

Europe » Spain » District of Madrid » Madrid September 26th 2007

Today I was able to enter the great cathedral next to my house. Here's a link to a picture I took of the cathedral itself. Later I'll try and upload pictures of the inside. http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/2332/img2154as0.th.jpg It was amazing. I went with my Polish roommate, and although she thought it was impressive, I could tell she didn't find it as amazing as I did since she's lived in Europe her entire life and has always been surrounded by such great structures. We walked around the inside and I was in awe the entire time at how big and beautiful everything was. When you are here in Europe, you really get an appreciation for history, unlike in the USA. I love walking down the street and knowing that people have been living here for over 2000 years. It's ... read more

Europe » Spain » District of Madrid » Madrid September 26th 2007

I’m in Madrid with my host family but I’ll get to that later. Time to play catch-up. I didn’t get to see much of Valencia. There was a really modern part of town that was created for the 1992 World Fair. It’s a must see! The buildings were so futuristic and it was an entire area of town so it worked out really well. We walked around that area for a bit before departing on a paella experience. Paella was invented in Valencia so it’s necessary to eat paella there regardless how little time you have in the city. Before we ate our paella we went out on a boat tour through the rice patties in Valencia. It was very cool. We spent a couple days in Barcelona but like Valencia, I didn’t feel like we ... read more

Europe » Spain » District of Madrid » Madrid September 25th 2007

There is a bar in my hostel! Lovely. Pool tables and a sun deck. I´m actually just happy there is a bathroom in my room with a blow dryer. Haven´t seen one of those in awhile...hahaha. BTW, I still have a little bit of a cough but my runny nose and fever are definitely gone. I´m still drinking Airborne and popping those Vitamin C lozenges. I will overcome!!! Kerri and I walked over to Puerta Del Sol last night and took some cool nighttime pictures. We traversed around and then ate some "tortillas", which were actually omelettes at Zahara Cerveceria and Cafe off Gran Via. Nice to people watch again. The sangria tastes better here than in Barcelona. We then walked through Plaza Mayor. I liked that it was very chill at night. People just hanging ... read more




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