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Published: April 30th 2009
In two Mondays I will be leaving Spain! I can't believe how fast time has gone. This is my last week of classes and next week I will be taking my final exams, so now I'm trying to squeeze in the last things on my Madrid to-do list!
Last Tuesday I went to a Real Madrid soccer game. As you probably know, soccer is the number one sport in Europe by far. Tennis and basketball probably come in second and third (Nadal the tennis player is in a lot of Nike ads here). When I realized I didn't have a lot of time left to go, I sent an e-mail to everyone in the group seeing if people would be interested in going for that Tuesday. A few of the boys had already gone to an Atletico game (another Madrid soccer team but in a different league) but almost no one had been to a Real Madrid game. Most of us ended up going and I bought tickets for me, Susan, Edgar and Jarrad to sit together. The game was against Getafe (another Madrid team) which isn't as good so it was easy to get tickets last-minute. For those Americans
who don't watch soccer, it's kind of like the Yankees playing the Mets since both teams are from the same city with Real Madrid being the Yankees since they pay top dollar for the best players. The difference is that they are in different leagues with Real Madrid being in the best one. That's as much as I know about European soccer, so you'll have to go elsewhere for more details!
We get 12 Euros back from our program and bought the cheapest tickets which were 15 plus a 2 Euro service charge so we didn't spend much to go. It turned out to be one of the best games so far! Getafe scored a goal early on but then in the last minute of the 1st half. (There are 45 minute halves and then the ref adds on extra minutes at his discretion in the last minute of play in the half. Unlike in American sports with a clock, when a player is injured the clock doesn't stop so they just add on the time later. And believe me, there are lots of "injured" players or at least players trying to draw a penalty from the other team
for a free kick.) In the second half, Getafe scored again. I was beginning to think Real Madrid was going to suffer an embarrassing loss to Getafe even though they had control of the ball more often. Then a Real Madrid player got tripped in the box was was given a free kick on the 18 line and scored to tie it. Then something happened that made the news all week: when one of the Getafe players was on a break-away close to the Real Madrid goal (where I was sitting behind), one of the Real Madrid players tripped him and then kicked him and stepped on him. I saw the ref pull out a red card to expel him from the game but since I was sitting high up I couldn't tell exactly what had happened. It turned out that he was suspended for the rest of the season since it was so nasty. Getafe got a penalty kick from it but didn't score. After that both sides got a lot more aggressive. At the very end of the half again Real scored to take the win. I've always been really bored by soccer on TV, but seeing it
in person was really exciting and I had a great time. With about 10 minutes left Susan and Jarrad decided to leave to beat the crowds and basically missed all of excitement in the second half, so I'm definitely glad I decided to stay and watch until the end!
Wednesday after flamenco class I got a drink and tapas with Ashley, Diana, Allison and Edgar. Then we walked to a theater to see a play called "Estrella de Sevilla." The kids in Carmela's tragedy and comedy class read the play and so they had to come but a few of us not in the class signed up too. I read the synopsis in English before which helped a lot but the theater company had kind of a view interpretation of it. Except for main scene when Estrella wore a white wedding dress, everyone wore black suits the whole time. The entire cast also was always up on the stage and whichever actors weren't involved in the scene would just sit in the back. There wasn't really a set either, just blocks of wood that were moved around. For example, when the King breaks into Estrella's house, one of the
blocks was laid down and the rest of the male actors sat on it with their backs to the audience to act like the walls of the house. The acting was good but in general it was hard for me to follow. After the theater I met Sezen at my favorite Intercambio and we stayed pretty late.
Thursday night I met up with Hallie, Andres, Jarrad, Sezen, Craig, Ari and Ellis. Ellis suggested going out to a bar near him that had cheap drink specials and so we met up at a cafe near his house first. Since I live close by to Ellis I google mapped the area and it was only a 20 minute walk from my house. We hung out there for a while and then headed over to the bar which played rock and indie music. I stayed later with Andres and Ellis since we all lived close and didn't need to catch the metro before it closed at 1:30 am.
Friday was the nicest weather we've had since I've been here. It was a beautiful 73 degrees. I woke up at 10 and then went straight to Retiro to enjoy the weather. Every
time I go to Retiro I discover some new section of it because it's so huge. I hung out there for close to 2 hours just strolling along. Then I decided to do one of my guide book's walking tours so I walked from the Retiro to Plaza Mayor. I bought a cute shirt I had seen in the window of a boutique earlier and then tried to find the La Latina metro stop since that's where the walk started, but realized I was nearby a few stops into the tour so I just picked it up from there. I walked past the cathedral and royal palace up to Plaza de Espana and the Parque Oeste. On the way I got an ice cream cone and also checked out a pretty church. In the park I saw the Egyptian temple of Debod, which according to my guide book was built in 2nd century B.C. and given as a gift to Spain in 1968 as a tribute to the Spanish engineers who helped rescue ancient monuments from flooding waters of the Aswan Dam on the Nile. After that I took the bus to come home for dinner.
Friday night I
met up with Hallie, Ellis, Tom, Nick, Andres and Sezen for a drink at our favorite pub. Then we went to La Fuga (The Maze) which was sometime Craig had discovered nearby. It's a little hard to explain, but basically each player gets a wristband with a sensor and needs to answer logic questions and complete physical obstacles to get through each level. It was built a few years ago by a brother-sister team who made a lot of money off of some internet business and now they are planning to open one in Times Square. The concept was cool but I think they still have some bugs to work out. I didn't completely understand how the logic puzzles worked and so I didn't get very many questions right. Nick got the furthest in the middle of level 3 and climbed up a huge rope and went into a ball pit but poor Ellis and I were the lowest scorers and never made it out of level 2. Afterward everyone had emerged we all got a drink there together and then some people went home. Hallie, Ellis, Andres, Sezen and I bar hopped for a little while longer and then
Ellis and I split a cab home since we live the closest to each other.
Saturday I slept in and then took the bus to Moncloa. I walked to the Parque Oeste where I was on Friday to take the Teleferico (cable car) down to the Casa del Campo which was the royal hunting grounds in the past but now is a big recreational park for Madrid. There is actually a metro stop for it which I never noticed before because it is all the way at the end of one of the lines. I bought the up and back trip for 5 Euros and then got a car all to myself. The ride was about 10 minutes long and was really fun. When I got to the park I walked down the hill to Madrid's mini amusement park. I kept walking for another 15 minutes to the zoo/aquarium which I was thinking about going to but there was no student discount and I found the adult price of 18.50 Euros to be a little steep. Instead I just walked around some more around the park which had a lot of cyclists and people picnicking. Since I had bought
a round-trip ticket, I walked back up the big hill and took the Teleferico back and then stopped in a few stores along the park. I took the bus back for dinner and then I met Sezen and Ari at a sangria place our Spanish friends from Intercambio had recommended to us. The place was down in a basement and a line stretched all the way up the stairs so I was glad they had already gotten a table. The place had a piano man and cute little tables and famous quotes where written all over the walls. We got a big pitcher for 10 Euros and split it. After that Ari wanted to smoke hooka to we went to a Turkish place he knew up and I had some kebab with them.
Sunday I woke up and got on the bus to go to a new church for mass. It's right across from the Retiro and I had always passed it but wanted to see what it was like inside so I went to the 11:30 am mass. It was so beautiful inside with pastel-colored tiles all on the dome and behind the altar. My senora told me
later that the church is relatively modern. The mass was the children's mass and so about 20 kids sat up on the altar. Two of the older kids read the readings and the little kids got to help the ushers. For the sign of peace, all the kids came down to hug their parents and then when they came back on the altar they all lined up and received a kiss on the forehead from the deacon and priest which was adorable. The priest also let the kids answer questions as part of his homily. The parish seemed really friendly and I'd like to go back for daily mass one time before I leave.
When I came out of mass the Madrid Marathon was going pretty strong across the street. Before mass started I only saw one lone male runner (one of those insanely fast Nigerians) and a few random people watching but when I came out there were lots of people cheering and a steady stream of runners. I had to cross the street anyway to take the bus so I hung out and watched the race until it came. I was standing at the 41st kilometer mark
(I figured out later it was in the middle of the 25th mile) which explained the runners' pain-stricken faces! There was a cool marching band at the kilometer marker though so hopefully that helped their motivation.
I came home for lunch and then did homework until 5ish when I took the metro to see my first (and probably last) bull fight with Hallie, Ellis and Andres. I had bought our tickets online earlier and then we met up at the bull fighting stadium early to print out the tickets and get some snacks from the vendors outside. When you buy tickets, you have the option of sitting in the sun (brutal in the height of bull fighting season in the summer especially because Madrid gets terribly hot), shade, or a combination of both since the sun moves during the event. I bought tickets in the row Javier recommended (he said not to be too close because that's where to intense fans are, but also not too far away because that's where the crazy people sit) in the shade but that turned out to be pointless because it was really cloudy all day.
The event we went to was
for the novillos, which are smaller bulls because they're all four years old or younger. We bought the tickets for this kind of bull fight since they were half the price. The tickets were also cheaper and easily available because the bull fighters weren't that well-known, but for we Americans it didn't really matter. I read up in my guidebook about the format of the fight so I would know what was going on and it helped. Basically, the one we saw had 6 consecutive bull fights but we only watched four. There was a live band and a little trumpet sections that would sound whenever someone new entered the ring.
In a bull fight, there are three parts. After a little procession and the bull's entrance into the ring, a bunch of toreros wave pink and yellow sided capes called "capotes" and then retreat behind a little station protected by wooden boards that the bull can't fit behind in order to test the bull's speed and strength. Then the lancers on horseback called "picadors" come out and each stands across each other on the edge of the circle. When the bull gets close to one of them, they
San Manuel
Where I went for Sunday mass across the street from Retirostab it in with the lances in its back and neck muscles. The bull usually thrashes against the poor horse which is blindfolded and padded. The picadors leave and the "banderilleros" team is given barbed sticks on colored shafts into the bull's neck, except this time they are on foot. After this the bull's head hangs down more and it's running around bleeding with the colored sticks hanging from it's shoulders. The last stage is when the "matador" (killer) comes out in a fancy suit (all the guys wore cool outfits but the matador's was always golden). The matador has a sword and the red cape called a "muleta." At this point the bull is pretty disoriented and the matador can stand pretty close to it. He gets the bull to charge a few times and then when he is ready tries to drive the sword between the shoulder blades through the heart. Since the guys we saw weren't the greatest, sometimes they had to get a second sword to finish it. The worst part was watching the blood-soaked bull stumble around and moaning loudly in pain for its last few moments of life. Finally it would lay down on
its side and one of the guys would put a little knife into its head to make sure it was dead. After the first one, a bunch of people in the audience waved their handkerchiefs in the air approving the matador's performance. If the judge sees enough people doing it, he will award the matador one of the bull's ears. The matador we saw got booed a lot at the end because he took such a long time to finish the bull off it was pretty cruel and is considered poor skills.
After great weather on Friday and Saturday, the week started out pretty cold again. Monday began my last week of classes. After language class I took the bus to the neighborhood of Salamanca which is nearby to go to daily mass at La Concepcion de Nuestra Senora. I got there too late for mass but I was still able to walk around the church which was really beautiful inside and has a huge white steeple outside. Patricia recommended that I go see it and at dinner told me that her parents and one of her sisters were married there. Then I walked from the church to the
Reina Sofia for art class. Last Wednesday Jesus our professor gave us a tour of the Reina Sofia since we meet there but contains modern art which is not a part of our course which was cool. But this time we had no where to meet so he got permission to use one of the fancy meeting rooms.
On Tuesday since I didn't have Spanish History anymore I woke up at 10 am and then took the bus to Retiro to run. My goal was to run for an hour but I ended up making it to an hour and a half! I started by running the park's perimeter which I had heard was 3 miles long in itself which I think is pretty accurate since it took me about 30 minutes to do. For the rest of the time I just ran down random paths. I discovered a dog park and a big man-made hill covered in grass and shrubs and surrounded by water which was a memorial to the March 11, 2005 terrorist bombings in the Atocha metro/train station. the weather was 60 degrees and cloudy which was perfect running weather. When I was done I stretched
out on the grass and then took the bus home and ate lunch. Then I headed downtown to do check off the last of my sight-seeing stops but a lot of places had a long line so instead I bought an 80 Euro cent ice cream cone from McDonald's and walked around. I got to school for my last business class but instead we just had a drink in the cafeteria and talked. I was asking questions about the Spanish Civil War to my professor Tomas which I enjoy doing because he is about 30 and can give me a good perspective on what things were like for his family during that time. I'm always afraid to ask older people what it was like because it's not too far in the past and so many awful things happened that it's kind of taboo to bring up.
Tuesday night Tomas' business class and marketing class met up at a place Tomas recommended so we could all say good-bye to him and hang out. I like going to places Spaniards recommend because they're always cool places I would never find on my own. There I met up with Tom, Nick, Hallie,
Sezen and Andres and later Ari and Jarrad showed up with 3 Australians. Jarrad and Ari had met them when both groups were traveled in Belgium over Semana Santa and so Jarrad and Ari gave them their phone numbers for when they came to Madrid. Basically the Aussies all graduated from college and then worked long enough to save up for a 5 month vacation backpacking across Europe. They said it's very common for young Australians to travel and it makes sense to do it all at once since everything is so far away from them. They were really nice and I helped them make the last metro to the airport before it closed since they had to switch at my stop.
Wednesday was my last flamenco class and so we went with our teacher Alejandra to the Plaza de Santa Ana and sat outside for drinks. I remembered to bring my camera and so we got a nice group photo. Ashley, Sezen, Edgar, Ana, Jarrad and Jarrad were there so it was the whole class minus Tom. I will definitely miss Alejandra's sass when I leave Spain but it's possible she may come to DC next fall because
Casa Patas our dance studio is doing a show and her boyfriend is pretty well-known in Madrid. After flamenco Ashley and I went to the movie theater in Gran Via to watch "Los Brazos Rotos", the new movie out starring Penelope Cruz and directed by Almodovar both of whom also collaborated in "Volver." I watched Volver in my language class since Almodovar is the most popular director in Spain right now. Ashley and I were laughing because the two other main female stars in "Volver" also appeared in "Los Brazos Rotos." We understood the majority of the plot but there was one scene during which everyone else in the theater was cracking up and Ashley and I definitely couldn't keep up with it. The movie was interesting and I'm glad I got it in since GW said they would pay for one on them before the end of the semester. The movie theater itself was huge and with super comfortable chairs which inclined up towards the screen so you could see over other people's heads.
Patricia and I talked the other day at dinner about Spanish movies and she told me she cannot stand Penelope Cruz or Almodovar's movies.
Interestingly, Elena my language professor also said that a lot of Spaniards don't like her because she doesn't take serious parts. I thought everyone loved her because she was the talk of the town on the news when she became the 1st Spanish woman to win an Oscar for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and is in a ton of ads here for clothes and make-up.
After the movie Ashley went home and I stuck around since my Intercambio started not too long after and was only one metro away. I walked around next to the royal palace first and then went inside. My Spanish friends weren't there since they had left to go to Malaga this weekend (it is a long weekend since tomorrow is Spain's Labor Day and Saturday, May 2nd is a holiday for Madrid because it is the anniversary from when the city rose up against Napoleon's armies and gained back their independence). I talked more of the time with the computer guy from South America I had met a few weeks ago. He was telling me about the other activities the Intercambio group does which includes rollerblading in Retiro on Saturdays which I found kind of
funny. Then I went home and ate dinner late which Patricia had saved for me.
Today I didn't have any classes so I decided to use the day for sight-seeing before I have to study later in the weekend for my finals. I woke up at 10 and then took the bus to Sol to see the Museo de Bellas Artes. Before I entered the museum I popped into the church of San Jose which I've passed a million times but never got to enter. I'm glad I waited until the end of my art class to go because now I can finally appreciate the works by Goya and other Spanish painters. There were also a lot of artists I didn't recognize but I had a nice time there. I also got in for free with my Spanish university ID which was great. After that I walked up to the Plaza de Cibeles and then to the other side of the Prado where the Botanical Gardens are located. I walk past them all the time but the walls are covered in ivy so you can't see inside them from the main street. It was only a Euro and I
spent a while walking up and down the gardens and taking pictures. Not all of the flowers were in bloom yet and some parts have yet to be planted but it was really beautiful.
Now I need to start studying! I have to write a short paper on any work of art we're seen so far in class and then I have my art history and language finals on Monday, business on Tuesday, and Spanish History on Thursday. The first three will be fine as long as I put in the time to study but I am definitely dreading Spanish History since I didn't do as well as I would've liked on the midterm. The good thing is that it only covers Spain's transition to democracy after Franco died but the bad thing is that I need to know a lot of details since it's a concentrated few years that I've never learned before now. Tomorrow basically everything is shut down for Labor Day and Saturday I may see if I can take a study break if there are any fun things to do to celebrate Madrid's holiday.
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