The last two weeks...

So... I kind of forgot to write a blog after last weekend. Oops! It's ok though because I'm going to fill you in now. :)

Last weekend I went to a house party at my friend Caolan's apartment, which was a going-away party for his roommate Fabian, who was going back to Germany. It was a ton of fun, and there were a bunch of other students there from all over Europe who were studying in Alcala as part of the Erasmus program. It was nice to branch out a bit and meet some new people, and the best part was that I was speaking spanish to nearly everyone, and for the first time since I've been here it felt really easy and fluid for me. Kickass! So that was cool. I didn't do too much else that weekend, (I did go for a hike up the "mountain" outside of Alcala, which afforded some nice views of the city and countryside around here), but otherwise kept it pretty low-key and worked my way through the school week, which brings me to this past weekend...

We went to Madrid on Friday afternoon to meet up with Carlos' dad so we could get down to Malaga for the weekend. It was a really convenient trip for us because he was already going to visit a cousin near Malaga, so we pretty much tagged along for the ride, then hung out in Malaga for friday night, all day Saturday, and then returned with him on Sunday. He is a really cool dude, very easy to talk to, with a lot of interesting knowledge of Spain's geography and history that he shared with us as we drove through the La Mancha and Andalucia regions toward the south of Spain. It was a pretty long drive, but Spain is not that big compared to the US, so it was manageable. We didn't get into Malaga until almost midnight, but after he dropped us off we walked around a bit to see the city and the nightlife.

As it turns out, Malaga is actually a very nice city, and after spending some time there and in Granada I have to say I am quickly becoming a big fan of the Andalucia region. It is easy to see why it is the premier region for tourism in Spain. The countryside and the mountains are diverse and beautiful, and the arhictecture in both cities is captivating. The main boulevard in Malaga is lined with broad sidewalks, parks, and palm trees, to the point where I almost felt like I was walking around somewhere in southern California. Our hostel (Hostal Derby) was right next to this, and overlooked the Mediteranean from the side window, which was really nice.

That first night as we were walking around we discovered a large mass of people, mostly teenagers and students, having a drinking party (as far as we could tell) in the street. There was nothing else going on, but for about one block the whole street was closed off and absolutely packed with people. A little ways down the street, out in the harbor we saw a pirate ship so we walked a little further to check it out. On closer inspection it turns out this old-fashioned galleon was actually a nightclub, as we could see the colored disco lights flashing through the windows in what would have been the captain's quarters on the back of the ship. What a concept! Other than that we just walked around a bit more then went back to the hostel because we had a pretty full Saturday ahead of us.

We woke up around 9:30 AM and got out a little after 10:00 to get out and start touring. We had breakfast at a little cafe then headed over to the Alcazabar, which is the old moorish castle that sits upon a hill in the center of town, overlooking the harbor and the main boulevard. It was not as big as the Alhambra, but was impressive nonetheless. We took tons of pictures as we climbed up the hill through the castle, as the views kept getting more and more impressive as we went. After that we came back down to have lunch, and do a bit more walking. We ended up walking across town to the beach, then meeting up with Carlos' dad Mario, and his cousin Rafa, and we had some seafood and tapas at a little place right on the beach. I am finding out that I actually enjoy calamari more than I thought I would, and I even ate a fried sardine (whole, minus the head) as well as some steamed clams. Keep in mind aside from fried cod in traditional fish and chips, and various types of crab and shrimp, I don't normally eat seafood at all. It was a good meal though, and a good experience for trying some traditional spanish foods.

We split up with Mario and Rafa after lunch and walked around, and we tried to go to the cathedral, albeit unsuccessfully as it was closed. We continued on and walked up a big hill toward the palace part of the Alcazabar. And when I say big hill, I mean this was a really big hill! It was very steep in some parts, and it took us a while to get up the whole thing, especially because we kept stopping to take pictures. We never made it into the palace because it had just closed before we got there, but we did get to the top of the hill to see the incredible view out over the Mediterranean. Our timing turned out to be perfect for this though, as we were getting there right as the sun was setting, making for some wonderful pictures of the city and the coast. I will be posting these on Facebook when I get a chance.

That night we went out for dinner, and afterward stumbled upon the Carnaval celebration taking place on their main street and plaza. What a pleasant surprise! It is not exactly like the Carnaval in Brazil, though it had some similar elements. Overall it was definitely more of a family event, and the kids even had a costume contest, so a lot of them were dressed up like it was Halloween. There were a lot of street performers, and we watched a guy do a complete painting on a panel of glass in only about 2 minutes, and using only his fingers. There was a stage show too, but the comedian/MC was talking a lot about the differences between people from various regions of Spain, so most of the jokes were lost on us. We did get some pretty amazing ice cream there though before we went back to the hostel. We ended up turning in pretty early that night, and not going out like we planned, but we had walked all over the city pretty much all day and didn't have a lot of energy left for going out or dancing.

On Sunday we were up and out by about 10:15, and after we ate breakfast we were walking around and again stumbled upon another event on the main street without prior knowledge of it. We actually walked right into a political rally right as it was starting, and ended up getting flags (Andalucian) and signs (Paro, no! Empleo, si! = Unemployment, no! Employment, yes!) for the rally. It was being put on by the Partido Popular, which is akin to the Republican party in the US. They were rallying for a change in the laws regarding employment and unemployment benefits, because Andalucia has a really high unemployment rate right now. Overall there were about 15,000 people there for it from all over Andalucia and Spain, and it was a good symbol of unity and the effort to make positive change. Whether or not it actually had any effect on the government is unclear, because they were basically just asking the president of the Andalucia region (a member of the PSOE, the opposite party of the Partido Popular) to lobby for their cause in the national government. And as politics go in Spain, these two political parties are opposed in nearly every aspect, so I'm not sure if it actually did anything to have this rally, but it's the thought that counts I suppose.

Anyhow we took a little stroll through the waves after that then drove back that day, I did a bunch of homework and studying, and have been keeping at my schoolwork since then. We have midterms next week so it's kind of piling up right now, because aside from these tests the finals are the only other times when we are given any significant grade on anything. I am not worried about it, but at the same time it is a lot of pressure and I am not looking forward to having several consecutive days of tests. Life goes on though, and soon it will be time for Las Fallas in Valencia and then Semana Santa, which may or may not turn out to be a trip to Italy, it's still undecided. And this Saturday I am going to see a futbol game in Madrid with a bunch of people from school, so I'm really excited for that. So cheers for now, and feliz cumpleanos a mi! :)

Madrid and Escorial

So... this past weekend I opted not to do any sort of major travels and stick around the Madrid/Alcala area, which turned out to be a good decision in retrospect. The weather elsewhere turned pretty sour, especially on Sunday, and a few friends had a hard time getting back from Salamanca because the highways were shut down for a while outside of Madrid. Apparently getting an inch of snow is enough for Madrileños to consider the city to be "collapsed". My friend Abram and I went there on Friday though and had perfect weather, we were even wearing t-shirts while we were walking around, something which hasn't happened much here yet.

That day we walked around the city until we came to the Prado Museum, and then we busted out the cameras. Starting there and heading around the building, it was just one sight after another. There is a cathedral nearby that provided some good photo opportunities, as well as a local musician playing classical guitar who was really talented. We worked our way up the hill to revisit Parque del Retiro, where we spent most of our time that day. The sun was shining brightly, and provided some excellent lighting. Between the Prado, the church, and the park with it's lake and all it's statues, all in all I took 300 pictures that afternoon on my DSLR. We spent the rest of the evening walking around the more touristy area of Puerta del Sol, the main hub for all of Madrid's road systems, and the geographic center of the country.

On Saturday we took a train all the way from Alcala across the countryside to the mountains outside of Madrid, home of the Palacio de Escorial. Built by Philip II as part monastery, part palace, this enormous complex is situated on a hilltop overlooking Madrid and the surrounding area, though it is a good bit outside the city. We took the self-guided tour so we could take our time, and it took us a while to get through the whole thing. There were hallways and corridors leading every which way, it was like a big maze inside. We walked through the tapestries section first, then moved onto the part which demonstrated how it was constructed, which was pretty state-of-the-art at the time, using giant wooden cranes to hoist the cut stone into place. After that we saw the Hall of Battles, which was one enormous hallway with paintings from floor to ceiling on every wall demonstrating all of Spain's major military victories throughout the years. We also saw the ancient paintings sections, which were divided into the different periods and regionalities of the artists, which included Flemish, Italian, and Spanish painters' works. All of the artwork was religious in design, and there were some very dramatic and moving pieces in the collection. We saw paintings of Jesus being taken to Cavalry, being put up on the cross, hanging on the cross, dying on the cross, being taken down from the cross, etc. etc. After walking through all the various galleries there was no mistaking what Philip II thought of Jesus' crucifixion. The lower part of the monastery and the last part of the tour was the mausoleum, which was part amazing, part creepy. All of the tombs were very elaborately adorned, with all of the family crests hanging above each tomb. The most interesting part was where 60 children of the royal family were buried in one big tomb area, as all of them had died before they reached puberty, and could not be considered as successors to the throne. Kind of eery, but I guess that was just part of life back then.

We finished the tour after that and walked back out into the cold and rain, and were finally able to take some pictures for the first time of the whole tour. No pictures were allowed inside unfortunately, due to the religious nature of everything. Also very unfortunate was that we were not able to enter the basilica whatsoever, as it was under construction and renovation at the time. Totally lame! We didn't stick around much after that because it was really cold and really rainy, and not a very good day for taking pictures out in the elements. In fact, as we were watching the weather on the news the next day, they showed pictures of both of Abram and my weekend destinations, Parque del Retiro and Escorial, as part of their "it's snowing like crazy in Spain right now, EVERYONE PANIC!!" montage. Kind of a funny coincidence.

This past week I just had classes and not much else going on, since the weather has continued to be cold and rainy. We were making plans to go to Germany this weekend, but that fell through due to a scheduling mistake. We are still thinking about going next week, and are spending this weekend here in Alcala making plans for next week and other future travels to Ireland, France, Italy, and elsewhere.

I'll be out taking more pictures here soon if the weather ever lets up. It has been nothing but grey skies, cold, rain, ice-rain, hail-snow, and snow for the last few weeks. What a pain! Apparently this is an anomaly for this part of Spain at this time of year, no one can remember another year that had so much cold weather and so much precipitation for this long. Carlos and I have been joking that we brought the Colorado cold and snow with us, because reports from there are that in general it has been really nice, with some 60+ degree days and sunshine even. Send it over this way please!

Aside from that I am just practicing my ukulele a bunch, and I continue to improve my Spanish every day. I am still trying to get together with an 'intercambio' (conversation exchange) partner through the school, but it has been a real chore so far. This weekend I am going to be hanging out with some local friends Abram has made here, then attending a going-away party at my friend Caolan's apartment, and hopefully I'll be able to meet some more local Spanish students there as well. I really like the group of Americans I am here with and who I've met through school, but I also feel like I need to start expanding my circle of friends to include some native Spanish-speakers, since most of the Americans insist on speaking English when we're hanging out together. While I do appreciate how easy it is to speak a language fluently now after being challenged sometimes by having to speak Spanish, I feel like I'm here to learn Spanish more than anything else, so something needs to change.

Anyhow everything else is still going well, Isabel is still making us great food everyday, and I'm liking Alcala and my classes still. I signed up for the talent show for the school which is in April, and will be practicing for that a bunch here once I decide on what songs I'm going to do. I'll try to keep this more regularly posted too, so you all can keep up with my Spanish happenings a little better. Hasta luego!