hanging out in Malasaña!

My highlight of this week is that Alice and I have been lucky enough to spend a lot of time with our Spanish friends from choir! They're really sweet and correct our Spanish gently and bring us to very cool places (this week they have been mainly music oriented!) First we went to a little bar to watch the concert of some friends of our choir friends. The band was called Los Astronautas and they were really cool, we got to talk to them afterwards and they signed our CD we bought! The music was like indie rock, and the bar had awesome decór: burning incense, disco balls in the shape of Buddha's face/head, ceilings draped with red lighting and rosy scarves and even big Dragon puppets hanging from the ceiling too! The next night we went to KARAOKE! But first Alice and I got a bit lost- I read the directions wrong and we walked around the wrong neighborhood looking for (and asking people about a restaurant that did not exist in that neighborhood) Kapitas Karaoke for like half an hour before we figured out what had happened. We finally made it to the bar, sang some ABBA and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The karaoke bars here are a bit expensive- they either jack up drink prices or require a minimum amount spent in order to sing. But they bring tons of free little foods like gummy bears, nuts, chips and chorizo and jamón (OF COURSE). I love this country and its food. The tapas are so great. I can't wait to go to Granada where I hear you get tons of free tapas with every caña (little beer).


This week has been more low-key for my group of friends, meaning we've been having more tapas and sangria instead of crazy dance clubs. (This also means a little bit more sleep and time to do homework, which is good because we've hit pseudo-midterms. Working on papers and take-home exams in Spanish has been VERY challenging. Thank God for dictionaries).
Realizing I've been here for seven weeks is amazing- I feel very settled in here and I love living here. Madrid is definitely a city to live in, it's not a great city to come tour for its architecture (loads of apartment complexes) and a lot of the tourist attractions are the nightlife and shopping... but I LOVE living here, it's such a social city full of people who want to share their tapas with you and tell you how cold they think Minnesota is. Plus, of course, the metro makes everything easy. I've been taking more buses lately too since I've figured out a couple of the routes to take. The buses are a trade-off- they allow you to view the city and I definitely understand more about the layout of the city now, but they are often subject to the constant Madrid traffic and very slow.

Meanwhile, the weather here is FANTASTIC! It's sunny all the time with a cool fall breeze. It's finally sweater weather, just what I've been hoping for over the last seven weeks of sweating in the Metro. I still sweat on the metro but at least now when I get outside the breeze cools you off. Also my host mom has been killing me with delicious food lately. Today we had these amazing hard boiled egg things stuffed with shrimp or something that I LOVE and also ox tail stew thing that was so so so rich and delicious. I had a really interesting conversation with her and Marta, her son's pregnant wife who I love, recently about how cooking is the one thing that Maria, my host mom, would find joy in when doing housewife-y things while she was raising her five children and even now. It was really interesting hearing her talk about how much she loves cooking because you actually create something and you challenge yourself and your creativity to make the recipe new every time you make the dish. She takes so much pride in her cooking, I love complimenting her on how delicious it is (which is seriously every meal. I am not joking. Cafe Mac is going to seem so sad in just a few short months). She says the emails she gets from former students always say that they miss her cooking. And she says she teaches everyone how to make Tortilla Española. I can't wait! and I won't describe it here so you'll be surprised when I make it for you in the states!

On the illness front, I am feeling much better but still coughing. Marta gave me vicks vapo rub, which is incidentally exactly the same here in Spain. Marta is also going to give me a french manicure soon, but I haven't been home for long enough while she's here. Busy bee!!
exploring more parks! This one is a garden next to el Palacio Real.

More updates on travel soon, I'm trying to figure out what to do between December 22nd and December 29th. This awkward period is after my program has ended and after my choir concert IN THE PRADO MUSEUM and before I do more, already planned traveling. I might be on my own, might take a train, explore the south of France or some Spanish islands, whatever is cheapest probably (which may be staying in spain, plus it'll give me more time to practice my spanish). Leave a comment with suggestions of what to do in Western Europe around Christmas!

Love Natalie

Sinus infection, enfermedad, visit to the médico, olé!

This weekend has been very low-key as I have another lovely sinus infection and not much desire or energy to go out, which brings me to my new favorite story about my first use of my Spanish medical insurance. I thought it deserved its own blog entry, plus the last one was already too long. After steadily medicating an unrelenting fever with paracetamol (spanish tylenol) and blowing my nose every minute, I decided I needed a doctor and antibiotics. After lots of talking with my host mom and people at the Hamilton Centro about where to go, we found the closest clinic to my house. Or at least I thought it was a clinic, but it was actually just an apartment building with a tiny gold sign that said "Jose Peru, Medico." Naturally I had a bit of trouble finding it because there was no sign or door or anything that looked remotely like a clinic or doctor's office. It's only open one hour a day, so I showed up early to beat the rush. I was mistaken in my belief that this medico was popular, so after I rang the buzzer half an hour early I was told to wait outside until it opened. Still skeptical, I told myself I would reserve judgment until I was inside the office. This was probably a good decision because once inside I discovered this clinic was in fact was a septuagenarian Spanish doctor's apartment, straight out of the early 20th century, I kid you not. This is what it looked like:

I found that picture by googling "19th century doctors office." I was kicking myself for not having my camera the whole time. Everything in the waiting room would definitely classify as antique, all the books in his huge bookcases were leather bound, the exam room had a table and instruments that would have been at home in a horror film about organ harvesting or maternal death set in the 1920s. You think I'm exaggerating? I'm not. Everything was metal and cloth, no sterilized pre-packaged plastic here. His stethoscope was made out of rubber. Actual, harvested-from-a-tree, rubber. But it's not like I experienced any of these instruments first-hand because the extent of his medical exam was the command "Dígame." So I did. I told him, I have a sinus infection and I want antibiotics because I get these all the time. Before my trek to the office I looked up the Spanish name for Azithromycin, my favorite sinus infection drug, and told him that's what I usually take. It's called Zitromax here in case you're curious, but it's still manufactured by Pfizer. After he looked it up in his drug reference book CIRCA 1997 (THAT IS TWELVE YEARS AGO) he asked if I wanted it in 500mg or 1g pills... yes because I am the one with the medical degree and all. Then he tried to convince me to take amoxicillin because it was much cheaper, after he quoted the price to me in PESETAS. I've never even seen a peseta, they were the money used here BEFORE THE EURO. After I got over this I tried to explain that, thank you for taking a medical history and all, but I am actually allergic to amoxicillin, so no thanks. This didn't seem to phase him very much, as he talked about the peseta for awhile and then his childhood. Then he mentioned his interest in black and white photography and something about the faded sepia ANTIQUE photograph on the wall of a philosopher-looking man who was a professor of his dad's. In the 1920s. I could not even make this stuff up. But it's okay because it all ended with him handing me not one but TWO prescriptions. The extra is in case I need to go back for a refill if the drugs I picked out for myself don't do the trick. He also pointed me in the direction of a very, very cool pharmacy that's been around since 1895. It was the bomb. Riding the metro is also really fun right now because everyone gives me dirty looks and LOTS of space. Gripe A (Swine Flu) is a major concern here. I also FINALLY

So since I've been sick I've been forcing myself to stay inside more or at least come home earler, so I went to a movie theatre the other night with my friend Alice! It was really great, we saw The Informant (the new Matt Damon movie, it's called El Soplón here). It was Version Original which means English voices, Spanish subtitles which is really fun because I learn new words. We had some interesting new experiences at the Spanish cinema: we learned the word Palomitas! which means popcorn, and we learned that you get a seating assignment like in a real theatre.

But now I'm starting to feel the sinus infection going away and I'm hoping the full-blown cough will soon be gone too. Tomorrow I'm heading to the outdoor market, the Rastro. The 75 degree and sunny weather is really helping me feel better. Suck it, Minnesota! First snow today in Minneapolis/Saint Paul, sorry guys!

Hope to hear from you soon,
Natalie

Avila, Tordesillas, Salamanca, olé!

Catedral in Salamanca with Rachel, Meg and Alice

Last weekend we had a Hamilton-sponsored day trip to Avila and an overnight in Tordesillas and Salamanca. They're all a couple hours outside Madrid and we were supposed to board the group bus at 10. But that morning when my alarm went off, I naturally pressed off instead of snooze. I didn't have enough time to make it to the Hamilton bus via metro, so my subdirector called me and told me to catch my own autobús. By the time I had taken the long trip on the metro to the bus station and the long trip on the bus I'd run through half the music on my iPod and it was about 4pm in Avila. Oopsy! Avila is well-known for the preservation of its medieval cathedral and the "muralla" that surrounds the city. This wall looks like a fortress and is really cool because you can walk around on top of it.

Rachel, Alice and I on top of the wall!

Unfortunately I didn't see much of Avila because we left about two hours after I got there. But it's okay because the next morning I was actually EARLY for the bus to Tordesillas and Salamanca, after hearing the day before that we would be visiting more cathedrals, a medieval market y UNA BODEGA! What's a bodega you ask? A vineyard!
THE GRAPES
Tordesillas is kind of known for vineyards I guess, and we visited one that has a very large, very far underground tourist tour that we went on! We had to wear like cotton disposable suits to cover our clothes and got to tour the machinery of the plant as well as the old-time casks and wine cellars. The tour was a bit long and VERY cold underground, but it was a ton of fun and I learned a bit about wine. Plus we got to taste their Vino Tinto and Vino Blanco at the end of the tour! And, as always, there was chorizo to go with the wine.

Tordesillas also had some really beautiful old buildings and a very pleasant river that ran through it, a charming countryside oasis that is very close to Valladolid, one of the programs I was considering applying to before I chose the program I'm in. It was a very sleepy town and odd to think of myself there for the semester instead of MADRID. I love Madrid. Anyways, then we went to Salamanca! It's famous for having one of the oldest universities in Europe and also having two cathedrals in the same town that are connected to each other. Needless to say, we toured both. It was really interesting to see the contrast between the Romanic art and architecture next to the 16th century cathedral built adjacent and 300 years later. The old cathedral had this incredible retablo, a gilded, illustrated Biblical text to help the unlettered population.
And they both had amazing views (see first picture). Plus our fearless leader and know-it-all guide Joaquin led us around and told us interesting things about all the cathedrals we saw (for the last time, very sad). My personal favorite building we saw was a Saint Claire cloisters in Tordesillas. It was smaller and not as overwhelmingly carved, plus I'm named after Saint Claire so that was cool. It had tons of arab influence in the color scheme, tiling, painting, archways, geometric carvings in walls and floors AND it had these amazing paintings on the ceilings of really interesting geometric dragon heads on the intersecting sections of the vaulted ceilings. So cool. Unfortunately no pictures, maybe I'll draw it for you someday. Also in Tordesillas we got to spend a couple hours at this massive medieval market. The whole town was there, and half the people were dressed up in medieval peasant gear. For some reason all my photos of people dressed up in peasant gear are actually small children because they are cuter, but here you go:

The market had tons of cool jewelry, crafts, food, cheese, the local specialty grape juice, clothing (especially the ever-popular gypsy pants! I'm waiting til we go to Morocco so I can get them for cheaper) and MORE FOOD. I ate some homemade chorizo that was amazing, there were a lot of pastries around too. I also bought myself some artisan pottery that's very simple but was cheap and cool. I loved the market, we stayed there like all day, which was long enough to see a gypsy sword dance. Awesome.

Then we had a wonderful stay at this very very nice 5 star hotel that had a lap pool, hot tub and INCREDIBLE food. It's called the Paradour. We ate a huge dinner together and as usual it was a few courses plus a good house vino tinto. Plus the continental breakfast had soy milk, soy yogurt, and gluten free bread, muffins and pastries. I didn't know what to do with myself so I put a lot of it in my purse for later.

So needless to say, I am loving España, and I especially love traveling by autobús. More to come soon! I'm not traveling again until Halloween weekend when we will be going to BARCELONA with the whole group. Hopefully by autobús but I'll understand if it's by plane because it's a long way. In between I have a few day trips planned and general explorations of the city. Hope all is well with you!

Love Natalie

Lisboa, Portugal!

I love Lisboa! I just returned from a wonderful three days there with my friends Alice, Julianne, Mary, Meg, and Rachel. It was 80 degrees and sunny in Portugal the whole time we were there, the steep cobblestone streets and hand-painted tiles everywhere really made the city feel ancient (unlike most of Madrid), the people were very nice and helpful (and some of them spoke a little Spanish or English), and there were a million different hand-made portugese pastries in every shop. Since the Portugese colonized Brazil and began the transatlantic slave trade out of needs for sugar cane labor, they've had an excess of refined sugar for the last 500 years or something. That's a long time to be perfecting pastries. Our wonderful day trip guide also told us that all of the pastries' recipes mostly come from monasteries. For example, the nuns would separate the egg yolks from eggs to use the egg whites to starch the priests' robes, and they learned to make pastries with all the extra egg yolks and sugar. Holy innovation, they were soooo good.

On the aforementioned pastry tour, we rode around with our fantastic local guide Bruno (that's him with the pastries, those are called Pillows of Truth) as he showed us the coolest parts of Lisboa. We went to the westernmost point of Europe (called the end of the world because the portugese actually thought its cliffs were the end of the world before they started exploring and colonizing), toured an amazing castle called Sintra that's on top of a mountain, ate the best ice cream in the world (it literally won that prize), lounged on a beach in Cascais, ate pastries, went to Belem and, oh yeah, ate more pastries. Sintra was amazing, a huge mix of architecture with lot of Arabian influence, plus everything was covered in these amazing hand painted tiles (one of my favorite things about Portugal: hand-painted tiles everywhere on every building!) and incredible terraces and carvings everywhere. The surrounding grounds and mountain are all a nature preserve with a variety of trees and plants the crazy king had shipped in, like Sequoias and Japanese trees.

We also visited an amazing museum and its gardens called the Gulbenkian, tons and tons of ancient pottery and ceramics and an amazing collection of Baroque and Renaissance oil portraiture. I think I've spent the majority of my money here in Spain (and Portugal) on the metro, and on postcards and stamps. I love sending mail so I can't help it! Watch your mailboxes, everyone!

Our hostel was really great. Not only did it have an awesome location (walking distance to the awesome electric tram tracks and cool bars, but the atmosphere was very welcoming and safe and it was beautiful and cool. A Portuguese mum cooked a big family MEAT PIE dinner one night, all you can eat for 5 euro. I know, some of you are probably wondering why this wasn't the first thing I wrote about. Meat Pie is my favorite kind of pie, but honestly this one wasn't as good as the one I got for my birthday at Macalester or the meat bread from the Menogyn kitchen this summer. (mad props, chefs. you trumped a portugese mom). Plus there was a really cool patio/lounge area/bar, AND we had this awesome view from our TWO balconies.

All in all, a fantastic trip. I hope to go back sometime soon, after I've slept more. We're all exhausted from traveling, and we're heading to Salamanca tomorrow to tour a winery!

Back in Spain, I've been reading a lot on the Metro. Books are pretty expensive here and the English section has a limited and very odd selection, but I bought myself two books! "Tender is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald for a little St. Paul connection, and a book of Spanish love poetry my Spanish lit professor recommended called "La Voz a Ti Debida" (by Pedro Salinas). I really should be reading more in Spanish to develop my language skills, but it's hard to turn down all the Pulitzer Prize winning books my friend Alice brought over (I highly recommended "Olive Kitteridge" by Elizabeth Strout). But I have borrowed "Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal" (the first one) from my host mom and I'm reading slowly but it's easier than the poetry because I've read it before. Also probably because half the words are spells in latin and written with middle schoolers in mind.

Okay that's the scoop on Portugal! Hope to hear from you soon,

love Natalie

the end of the world