Reflections

On my last full day in Spain, I figured some reflections were only appropriate. But first a quick note about my week.

My week was nothing terribly interesting. We went to the Sorolla museum which is actually his old house. It's a very nice and his art is very calming. I would like a sunny seaside vacation now if you don't mind. Two of my friends left this morning so we spent their last night hanging out in Chueca, Madrid's gay district. On Wednesday the huge gay pride celebration started in Madrid. There was a huge crowd of people hanging out in Chueca and shows going on with drag queens and dancing and singing, it was crazy.

The whole neighborhood was decorated with flags

Last night selfie

This morning when I woke up at 10AM my host mom said something about "madrugón", meaning to wake up early. I was unaware 10 was early. Anyways. I'm spending today packing (my favorite thing) and hoping I can make my way through the metros tomorrow without injuring myself or someone else with my luggage. I'm gonna be that guy- you know, the one that blocks all the stairs and gets in your way and takes up so much room and that you generally roll your eyes at. Oh and hopefully my bag will be under the 50 pound limit. 
Later I'm going to head out to the gluten free bakery one more time and then hang around Chueca to see some of the gay pride parade! Madrid has one of the biggest gay pride parade's in the world, I'd be a fool to miss it. And now on to my very deep and insightful lists--

Things I Will Miss:

-The sun being up until 9:30/10

-Parks everywhere, it's like every block is required to have at least one park. And then there's Retiro which is just a beautiful big park.

-Siesta time when the city shuts down from about 2-5

-Humidity free heat

-Tortilla española

-Homemade gazpacho

-Campesina flavored chips

-8/9PM dinners, I think it just makes more sense. I actually tend to eat around then when I'm at school anyways. 

Things I Will Not Miss:

-Being verbally harassed on the streets no matter what time of day

-People trying to sell me things everywhere all the time on the street

-Feeling like I need to be cautious of my surroundings every minute of the day

-Cold, short showers

-Sleeping in 85 degrees at night without air conditioning

-Almost everything being closed from 2-5 every day

-The really really hot heat

Things I Miss About the US:

-Starbucks. Hate all you want, but I miss sugary coffee drinks.

-Kale, tofu, and tempeh

-Ethnic food (again with Europe not doing ethnic food well)

-Peanut butter

-My cushy bed

-Thunderstorms and rain in general

-Having a desk to work at

-Being able to speak anytime I want and not feel like I sound stupid

-Having lots of food I can eat
-Being able to pay with my debit card (they don't really do that in Spain)

-Oh, my friends and family I guess.

¡Disfruten mis amigos!

A Repeat of Toledo and Living the Spanish Life

Monday night was another Copa de Bienvenida (even though it was our third week, the school just hosts one every week), so we went to disfrutar from the one free cup and sit around and talk a bit. One of the things I like about this program, is not everyone who's enrolled is American. Granted, probably 85% are, but there are the few odd non-Americans. At our table there were mostly Americans, but also a girl from Turkey who is studying in Canada, but speaks English very well (and some French), and a boy from Switzerland who speaks German, Spanish, English, and some French. Oh and a girl from the UK, so there were some British-isms floating around. So for a part of the night I spent some time practicing my language switching skills between Spanish, English, and French. It was surprisingly fun, but unsurprisingly exhausting. Sadly, I don't speak Turkish or German or I would have thrown those in as well. Still, it was a good time and I gave myself a mental pat on the back for all my language switching.

The rest of the week passed mostly uneventfully, but funfully (?).

Thursday morning I woke up sick. Who gets a cold when it's 95 degrees out?! That doesn't seem reasonable. I know one of you out there reading this will be thinking to yourself-- "Of course it's possible, don't be silly" and then carry on talking science. I know it's possible, but it feels stupid. Colds are for the cold weather. But Thursday night we went to the party thrown by the school at a bar/club which was a little weird, but I had a great time dancing and being weird in a corner with my friends. Always social. In a corner.

Saturday we headed out to Toledo! I spent a long time trying to remember if I've been to Toledo already during the J-Term last year. It felt very familiar, but little European towns start to blend together. However, when we went to see the famous El Greco painting it clicked that I had indeed been to Toledo. It was still fun to revisit though.

Overlooking Toledo

We're still not entirely sure what was going on, but there was a huge procession going on around the cathedral. It had started before we got there at 10:30 and lasted until about 2:30. There were tons of people there and huge gilded church things being carried, it was ridiculous. A quick internet search tells me that it was the feast day of St. Peter, first Pope and St. Paul, so maybe it was a celebration for one of them. But there were a lot of Mary statues around.

Giant crowds and giant church things

 The cloister there was very pretty. Not bad being a monk and getting to walk around that pretty nature.

The cloister at the Cathedral of Toledo

Cloister again

Saturday night we decided to go out and embrace the party lives of the madrileños. (Spoiler alert: the party life is not for us.) We went to Kapital (yes, with a 'k') in Madrid, a seven story night club. I have never witnessed a more ridiculous place in my life. We were cautioned by everyone to be very aware of our belongings and watch ourselves, so don't worry family, nothing happened. It had a great dance floor with lights and fog and giant air wooshing machines that occasionally blasted cold air and fog at the dance floor. Why? I'm not quite sure, but it was appreciated, it was hot. We stayed there until pretty late, went to get some 24 hour churros, and then took a taxi home and slept most of the day. It was amazing that Madrid was still buzzing with life no matter what time of night it was. I don't know of anywhere in the US that stays up that late. I think I've filled my night club quota for the next few years.

And now, I start my final Monday and final week of classes! While I will be sad to leave Spain, I am looking forward to being home. I haven't seen rain in 3+ weeks and I keep getting warnings from the weather channel that Pittsburgh is flooding and raining and thundering everywhere. I miss thunderstorms! It's also going to be about 99 degrees here this week, the heat isn't kidding around.

And how about those first place Pirates, eh?