Ten Days In

Hola amigos! I realize I haven't updated in awhile... I've been fairly busy with everything! It's hard to believe that the weekend has come again :) I'm starting to feel like the vacation period of being here is over and now its setting in that this is actually where I'm living for the next 5 months. I have gotten to know the city quite a bit better in the last week, but of course still have a lot of exploring to do. I spent the afternoon last Sunday at El Retiro, a large park in the middle of the city. We also took a tour of "Old Madrid" - the "downtown" (which isn't a typical downtown, but is the old part of the city with lots of great plazas and oooold buildings). Yesterday I took a tour of El Prado - a fairly large art museum - and was able to see quite a few works of art that I had studied, very cool!

This week we started a 2 week grammar class to help us get in the swing of things. It is going pretty well - definitely learning some helpful vocab and phrases, such as "él tiene mucha pasta" being our equivalent to "he has a lot of dough" - haha. I register for classes on Monday, and as of now am hoping to take:

1. An art history class about the works at El Prado, with class on campus as well as in the museum

2. An "Islam in Spain" class - talking about history as well as current events.. along with a visit to La Mezquita in Cordoba!

3. A syntax class comparing English and Spanish - it's supposed to be very helpful in everyday language and the professor seems pretty cool

4. An intro to psychology class... I've always wanted to take it at Madison but haven't had time. It will probably be quite difficult, but I think I'm going to take it pass/fail

5. A class called "The Bible and its repercussion in western literature"... also should be very interesting, but hard because its a "cuarto curso" class, meaning Spaniards studying literature would take it in their junior/senior year. Also hoping to take pass/fail :)

The first 3 are "reunidas" - with other American students, and the last 2 are "complutense" - with all students at the university (UCM, Universidad Complutense de Madrid). I start the reunidas classes on Feb 1 and the complutense classes on Feb 15. My reunidas classes are all Monday/Tuesday from 8:30-1:00 (and at the Prado on Wednesdays), so that means that I have long weekends for the next month or so :) I'm trying to look at doing a bit of traveling on those weekends, potentially to Italy, Amsterdam or Sevilla to visit my wonderful friends from UW! Not quite sure - the prices fluctuate quite a bit each day and I've been talking to friends from my program about doing trips together, so we'll see what happens!

My señora continues to be great and I look forward to coming home each day. Most nights, we watch a Spanish game show called Pasapalabra (pass the word) that is a fun way to try to learn some vocabulary. She is so generous and gives us potato chips and Coke every night when we watch it before dinner. She has been cooking wonderful things and has been so great about my diet - she makes a lot of soups and roasted vegetables and is always concerned about me getting enough iron and protein. She makes us sandwiches each day for lunch (even though she's only supposed to provide breakfast and dinner). Two of her grandsons are coming over for the night tonight, so that will be fun to meet them! Her dog, Kika, is so cute and loves having us around to pet her :)

Today I have the afternoon off, so I'm going to go running right now and then out for lunch with a friend.. then I have an apartment showing (for after my homestay) and class. It is Marissa's (my roommate) birthday, so I think we're going out dancing tonight! Then tomorrow, I am meeting for the first time with my "intercambio", a Spanish girl who is interested in meeting w/ me about once a week to speak in Spanish for 1/2 an hour and in English for the other 1/2 hour. Below, I'm putting some pictures from the week: one from Toledo, one of my room, and a few from various places in the city!

A view of Toledo - a beautiful old city about an hour southwest of Madrid (the old capital)

A picture of all of the soy products in a store here... very nice :)

Me in El Retiro

El Palacio Real -  The Royal Palace - in Madrid... huge and very pretty

My desk area in my room... sorry for the horrible picture!

Finally, here is a link to my saved googlemap w/ markers:

Map showing where I'm living compared to various places in the city Love you all! -Bonnie