Las Problemas de una Chica Gorda

I've been so cultural lately! Yesterday we went to the Museo de la Reina Sofia (Queen Sofia's Museum). I can't pretend I'm Picasso's biggest fan but it was still cool learning about his paintings.

Today I had class until 1:30 then I went to a market near school called Mercado se San Miguel for lunch with Michelle and Annie. I can't even put into words how amazing the market was. I ate .... everything. The market is divided into little stations with every type of food imaginable. Thus begins the tour of my lunch:

I started with a limonada de Madrid, a fruity drink with gin. It was delicious and Annie got hers for free because the guy at the bar thought she was cute.

Next, we got paella, a traditional Spanish food. I got mine with vegetables only because all the meat looked weird! It was delicious.

After the paella, I pregamed my dessert with a miniature cone of chocolate gelato. It was delicious and I think the guy at this station liked me because I got a free cookie on top of my gelato. 

After my pre-dessert, I was feeling healthy so I went for a cup of fresh fruit. The strawberries and pineapple were delicious!

After the fruit I was feeling healthy; just then we stumbled upon a station for frozen yogurt. With the small size you got one topping and I got hot brownie. It may have been the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. No exaggeration.

I decided to quit while I was ahead after the yogurt since I doubted anything would ever be so delicious. We walked around for a little in an attempt to burn off some of the food and we stumbled into a bookstore where I bought the Spanish version of The Notebook:

Hopefully reading it helps me learn! We were almost five miles from home at this point and had an hour to get back; Michelle took the metro but Annie and I decided to powerwalk. We were dripping sweat when we got back because it was almost 90 degrees but I felt a lot less guilty about my huge lunch! After our walk we went to a BULLFIGHT!!! It was really exciting and I felt so cultural, but I had to close my eyes when they killed the bull. I guess I'm not as European as I thought.

So I put my hands up, they're playing my song, the butterflies fly away

I feel like Hannah Montana in the sense that I'm living a double life; my real life in Virginia is nowhere near as cool as my life here. In Virginia I go to bed early and wake up early. In Madrid I stay out until 6 AM and sleep till 12:30 in the afternoon on Sundays. In Virginia I sit in bed on Facebook when I'm bored, in Madrid I peruse Facebook while casually sipping Sangria at a cafe. In Virginia I don't talk to my teachers outside of class, In Madrid my teachers invite me to get a beer with them after class. Don't mind if I do.

The part about staying out all night last night was not a joke. Who am I and when did I become so European? Our whole group went to a club called Teatro Kapital (or just Kapital.) It's one of the biggest clubs in Europe; there are seven levels and it looks like something out of a movie. Annie and I danced for 4 hours straight and today I feel like I ran a marathon ... hopefully I burned off all the bread and gelato I've consumed (yesterday I pregamed my gelato with a churro.) I bernied a lot (Mom, google it it's a dance move) and hit probably 57 people in the face while whipping my hair. Annie is only 5'2 but she's a great bodyguard, a probably innocent man tried to talk to me and she shoved him so hard he stumbled. Oops. At 6AM when we left Kapital Annie and I were starving so we wandered for a little looking for something to eat ... we found a Dunkin Donuts. We were so happy we hugged. I think the sandwhich I ate brought my more joy than my wedding day or the birth of my firstborn child will. I never thought something frozen and subsequently nuked in the microwave would cause so many endorphins to be released in my brain.

The night before we went to an Irish pub called Dubliners. They play American music for an hour on Fridays, including Mr. Brightside and We Found Love. I'm pretty sure everyone else hated my singing but they don't speak English sooo I'm not concerned. I don't fool anyone when I pretend not to be American so I felt very comfortable doing a solo performance of the Mock Rock new girl dance.

Yesterday during the day we went to Escorial and Valle de los Caídos. There was a beautiful Monastery in Escorial and a really amazing view in Valle de los Caídos. Our excursions are so tiring but I love that I get to see so much of this country!

Being on another continent has made it clear how small of a world this is. On my very first day in Madrid, I saw a girl I know from America just casually walking down the street. We went to the same elementary school, middle school, high school, and college. A girl from my program went to the same high school as my cousin in Florida and was her AP Environmental Science lab partner. In Dubliners, Annie met an American guy who lives with her cousin at Washington and Lee. Weird!

It's also crazy how quickly you get to know people after living with them for a week. I've spent all day every day with Annie and Michelle and I could tell you more about them than some of the people I've known for years.

Today is our first completely free day; since we woke up past noon it's more of a half-free day. We found an internet cafe to eat lunch at and work on the journal we have to complete for credit at Tech. The weather has been beautiful all week. Next weekend we have an overnight excursion in Salamanca. I can't wait! I hope everyone (does anyone actually read this?) has enjoyed hearing about my antics since I've been here. HASTA LUEGO AMIGOS

los americanos estúpidos

I’ve found my sleep-related breaking point: 6 hours. Any less and I revert back to being five and have to stop myself from throwing a temper trantrum … thus far I’ve been successful but I’ll keep everyone posted. 

I’ve only had 1.5 baguettes so far today. My body feels deprived of carbs so I’ll have to make up for the lack of bleached flour tonight at dinner. 

Today we had our excursion to Toledo! It’s only about 30 minutes from Madrid but it’s so different. The city is much smaller and it reminds me of Tech; at school everything is made of Hokie Stone and in Toledo all of the buildings were very similar and the roads were all stone (I stumbled often but never actually fell.) The city is very hilly so it was unfortunate when ten of us got lost for 45 minutes during our free time. Dr. Panford was not amused to say the least. At one point my legs were so tired I almost rolled down a hill but there were cars coming and I didn’t want my dress to get dirty. 

In Toledo we went into two cathedrals; they were unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. I felt lucky to be Catholic (hear that, Grandma?) because I could understand and appreciate a lot more of the architecture and murals than some of the other students. The cathedrals are beautiful and mind-blowingly huge, I had a hard time focusing on our tour guide because there was so much to look at. It’s crazy to think about how long it would take to build with no cars or modern machinery. I respect the Spanish! 

A few noteworthy things: THE ELEVATOR. In our building the elevator is maybe 1/5 of the size of a US elevator. Michelle, Annie and I barely fit and the weight limit is 320 kilograms. I don’t know the conversion but it’s entirely possible that we weigh more.  Stay tuned for news that the gringas in the building broke the elevator, feeding the stereotype that Americans are fat. 

CROSSWALKS. We’re used to strolling casually across the street because in Blacksburg cars (almost) always stop … not the case here. They don’t slow down even a little, even when we have the green arrow. My life has flashed before my eyes more than once but at least recently the flash includes chocolate croissants and Sangria so it’s not so bad. 

MODERATION: In Spain, the general consensus is that Americans are wasteful, gluttonous human beings. They think we eat too much too fast (probably true) and use way too much electricity and water (definitely true). Here, people take quick showers usually every other day (I’m allowed to shower daily for everyone else’s sake) and only turn on lights and water when absolutely necessary. We’re not allowed to turn on lights unless it’s dark and then we can only turn on one! They also think we’re ridiculous for driving big cars; I’ve only seen a few SUVs since we’ve been here. They’re right, but that doesn’t mean I’ll shower less often at home. I’ll consider being more considerate about electricity but this girl needs 10 minutes to bathe. Tomorrow we have another excursion. ¡Hasta luego! 

Solo Vives una Vez

I'm fairly certain I have a sign on my back (or forehead) that reads "I'M A BLONDE AMERICAN PLEASE STARE AT ME!" I've been given the once over a few too many times for me to feel like I blend in. The bright orange lock on my backpack also isn't helping.

We're done with school for the week! This week we studied Spanish poetry from the middle ages to the present. In class today we read a sonnet by Luis de Góngora. The message was to live life now because someday you'll be old and ugly ... I can't decide if this is uplifting or not. We all laughed because someone in class called it the "YOLO" of the 17th century.

This weekend we have our first excursions to Toledo on Friday and Escorial on Saturday. I can't wait to explore Spain even though I feel like I've only seen 1/1,000,000th of Madrid. Every day after school we pretty much just wander. I feel so European sitting at an internet cafe with my sunglasses and Sangria but I cough everytime the guy at the table next to be blows smoke in my face which is so not European.


Today we went into the Parque de Retiro for the first time, it's kind of like Central Park and it's really close to school. There are peacocks just running amok and a little pond thing where you can row a little boat around ... we were not very good at steering the boat. We ran into a few people and got called "Gringas" more than once. Retiro has this cute little cafe where we like eating lunch.


We continue to eat some form of baguette for every single meal and snack. Yesterday we stopped at a market just to buy some fruit. Luckily our madre made some sort of asparagus casserole for dinner because I needed some vegetables in my life!

I feel like I have a million things to say but I need to start writing them down because I forget everything. I posted pictures on facebook so go look! Everyone can laugh at my attempts at taking artsy pictures because I failed pretty much every time. ¡Adios!

Mi vida diaria

I'm finally able to have internet for long enough to write a post! I got to my house in Madrid around 9:30 AM (my time) on Sunday. The school sent a bus to pick us up from the airport and then my madre took a taxi to come pick us up. She's a 70-year-old Spanish woman who lives alone in an apartment except for her little dog, Coco (we call him Coquito, which sort of means "little Coco.") He's smaller than Lucy and she's only 12 pounds!

The apartment is tiny, but apparently it's big for Madrid! Michelle and I share a little room and Annie has a smaller one to herself. The three of us share a teeny bathroom. We're allowed to shower once a day for five minutes. My personal hygiene is definitely not as great as it usually is in the US, but we're all in the same boat.

Every day my roommates Michelle, Annie and I get up at 7:45 to get ready for school. Our madre has breakfast ready for us, which is two pieces of bread with strawberry jam and coffee that Annie claims is really strong. I wouldn't know since I never drink coffee in the US, but I put so much milk in there that I can barely taste it. We take the metro to school, which is extremely similar to the DC metro so it's easy for us to navigate. We leave at 8:30 to get to school by 9; on Monday we walked home from school and it took about an hour. We plan to walk home whenever we can because there are tons of cool shops and bakeries on our way, and we save money.

Our madre packs us lunch every day which is basically a small baguette with chorizo, which is kind of like salami (I don't love it but I guess I'll get used to it.) The sandwiches are really bland, even coming from a girl who hates condiments, but everyone on the trip gets the same lunch from their madres so it must be common here. For dinner on Sunday our madre made us spaghetti with meat sauce and hot dogs ... not exactly Spanish food but we were hungry so we didn't complain. Last night after dinner we went out with people from school.

Our madre has diabetes and eats five times a day when she gives herself insulin so she never actually eats with us. We feel bad having her cook for us then not eat but she doesn't seem to mind! She never seems to leave the house; she wears a nightgown all the time and loves telenovelas, Spanish soap operas. The other night during dinner she told us she loves watching bullfights and turned one on ... it was hard to eat watching a bull continuously get stabbed and bleed everywhere. We were gagging when they stabbed it in the neck to kill it but I guess it's normal for madre ... she doesn't speak a word of English so there's occasionally a communication barrier but between the three of us chicas we can usually understand her.

I never realized until I've got here that since I've been studying Spanish, I've never spoken it with anyone who does not also speak English. When I have to order at a restraurant or talk to madre, I can't rely on English at all which is definitely going to force me to improve my Spanish.


School isn't bad at all; there are 10 people in my Spanish Literature class. We have class from 9-1:30 with short breaks every hour and a half. My teacher's name is Ines, she's young and very expressive so it's not hard to pay attention. Michelle and Annie are in my class to so we can all study together.

So far we love the city! We walked around on Monday for more than 7 hours total yesterday so my feet and legs are killing me today but it was worth it. The city is so much more colorful than DC, it's completely normal to have pink, yellow, and orange buildings everywhere. The buildings are also not as tall as they are in DC. We haven't seen too much crazy Spanish fashion yet, everyone seems pretty normal but somehow everyone knows we're American, besides an elderly woman who asked me if i was "de Alemania" or "from Germany."

It's crazy how late everyone stays up; last night the Tech people all went out to a tiny bar near Puerta del Sol which has a lot of shops and restaurants. None of us were carded and a pint of beer was only 2 euros. I also learned that saying "Sangria" is a dead giveaway for being American, here it's called "Tinto Verano" or "summer wine." Annie, Michelle and I left at 12:30 AM, dead tired, and there were tons of people of all ages walking around the city like it was no big deal.

Today after school we went to the Prado museum; we mostly focused on learning about the paintings from Goya and Velasquez. I wish I was a little more cultural so I could be into art; I just pretended like I was truly enjoying our tour. All of the tours we have are by Spanish tour guides so I have to pay close attention so I don't miss anything they say when they talk a mile a minute.

Last night we only got about 5 hours of sleep so I'm about to take a "siesta." Dinner is at 8, which is oddly early for Spain. I haven't had time to upload all the pictures I've taken but I will soon, and then make another blog post about them. Hasta luego!