A small update

I've now been in Spain for 12 days. Not too much new to report, as mostly I've just been going to classes and living life (and of course missing you all). So here are some details of mi vida española so far:

I'm taking 4 classes - Contemporary Spanish Politics, Spanish History, Contemporary Spanish Novel, and Spanish Cinema. All are going well so far, even though I missed the first week of the Spanish Novel because I was going to take Women in Spain but for BU to count all my credits, I had to switch.

Last Thursday Menchi, my señora, took me to her cooking class, which was way fun. I met a bunch of her friends, including a professional hang glider on the Spanish National Team (bet you didn't even know that existed. Neither did I). We ate delicious food and I got to listen to lots and lots of Spanish, of which I think I understood 75%.

Some friends and I went out last Friday night and attempted una noche madrileña: We ate at a bar (ok, its not that Spanish-ish to eat at a bar), then we bottelon-ed a bit (its legal-ish to drink in the streets here! Ok, by legal-ish I mean they are not going to arrest you but its frowned upon, etc). The best part was realizing we didn't have a corkscrew so we improvised to Macguyver the bottle open. Then we went to a club (admittedly, one that caters a bit to foreign students, but we had coupons!). When we finally left, we all got home on our búhos (night busses) because the Metro was closed. I got home about 4:30 - a bit early for a typical noche madrileña but I'm getting there.

MacGuyver-ing our wine

I also went to my first Spanish movie (made in Spain, not dubbed): Todo lo que tú quieras. It was muy bonita, and I understood almost all of it without subtitles! Plus, BU will be reimbursing me for my cultural experience. I also went to the Reina Sofia art museum last week with some friends. It is huge, and we did not get through all of it, but we did catch a couple highlights, including Guernica, other Picasso works, and lots of Dalí.

Picasso Horse (part of the sketches for Guernica, but they didn't allow photos of that)

Sculpture/collaboration between Dalí and someone

This weekend, we are going to Galicia (NW Spain - sitting on top of Portugal). I've heard it's a lot like western Oregon, ie rains a lot and is very green. We're spending a day in A Coruña and a day at Santiago de Compostela, which is a big ol' Catholic pilgrimage site because supposedly St. James (Santiago) left some bones there or something. I'll let you know how it goes...

Sorry, not a lot of photos this time. It seems a bit strange running around with my camera out all the time when I live here, so...

Except for this. I love this. I'm coming here every day from now on.