Glamping!

Hola Amigos!

MalPal here for your most recent update on our adventures. Although it is Laura’s turn to post, she announced that she did not want to take a break from her vigorous studying and I gracefully stepped up to the plate. We are still loving life and such here in Madrid even though we’ve had some obstacles. For starters, Renatta and I BOTH have had massive complications with the banking systems not allowing us to withdraw money (Mom, I promise it’s not all for shopping). We were notified today that after weeks of poor signal, the school’s tech department had changed our weefee (wifi in Spanish) account name and password last week and for some reason neglected to tell us. Not complaining though because now, with this fabulous Usain Bolt speed of wifi and Netflix (shoutout to Kaliegh Barret) we can feel a little more at home. Speaking of home, we are currently participating in a “Glamping” take on residency. Today, January 27, 2014, marks the fourth consecutive day of the water in our apartment being completely shut off at 8pm and not turned back on until mid-morning the next day.

Have no fear; lack of aqua does not dull our sense of adventure! Bright and early on Saturday morning we once again fumbled with our metro maps and somehow made it to our bus to take us on the hour-long journey to Segovia.(Again, we resided in the back seat)

In glorious Segovia we saw the famous aqueducts and breathtaking views. We walked along the cobblestone streets and found the beautiful Cathedral de Segovia. Happy to report that next we found the castle named Alcazar. According to my two year old nephew, castle hunting is what I’m doing these days. After way too many obnoxious photo ops, (I kid you not when I say there was a Sound of Music reenactment done by Laura) we wandered into a little café. Famished, our Spanish was subpar to say the least when we attempted to order our food. Impressed with our effort and mostly out of pity, the kind waiter offered to give us free fries. However, the nice man wasn’t sure how to say it in English, resulting in “its..uhh, I’ll put them there.” Consequently the “gratis papas fritas” were smothered in the Godlike Spanish Ketchup and demolished.

 

us, once again blocking a gorgeous city view

Cathedral de Segovia

Sunday, we donned our money belts and headed to meet some friends to explore El Rastro, a huge flea market in Madrid. After a somewhat sketchy entrance, (referred to as a “garage sale” by Meghan) we made our way through the crowd in search of a bargain. We found multiple vendors that we liked and are excited to go back in the future! After the market we headed to Puerta de Sol to soak up some sun and searched for lunch. We somehow ended up in a Chocolateria with a lunch and churro special. Once again, after record timing meal consumption we were surprised with (yet another) free plate of chocolate covered mini churro delights aka heaven on a plate.   

          This Thursday, we will be heading to Lisbon, Portugal and could not be more excited! For now we will continue to ration our water and count down the minutes until dinner. 

"It's Not Weird, It's Different"

While grocery shopping the other day, after I remarked for probably the hundredth time on something that I found weird (was it the fact that there are no free bags so we had to carry our sliced turkey, cookies, and peanut butter jar in our arms down the street?), Laura reminded me that it was not weird, just different. Thanks, Mom. On the real though, after our first full week here in Spain we have encountered many things that we find weird different, and because we did nothing of excessive excitement (unless you wanted to hear all about our syllabi from each of our classes?), we decided to

share.

First, though it is very different to be living with a woman who doesn’t speak English, I think we all agree that it is a match made in heaven. Really the only downsides to living with Isabel/Mari are that we literally do not know what her name is and that the woman upstairs, whom Mallory has so graciously nicknamed “the devil wears Prada”, does laps around her apartment in what I imagine to be five-inch spike heels (red) at all hours of the day. However, these two downsides are hardly noticeable, considering how #blessed we are that Mari (?) does our laundry like, four times a week, makes our beds, cleans our rooms, and makes some pretty fantastic meals. Just two days ago she discovered our love for both hot sauce and ketchup and so now our meals, which already rocked, are even better. (I really love ketchup.) Every night when we eat our dinner at precisely 8 o’clock (early for Spanish standards, but we are ravenous and I think she’s caught on to that) on a pristinely set table, we (attempt to) chat about our days, and she thinks it’s downright hilarious when we tease each other about our Spanish novios or when Laura tells her about how awfully I misinterpreted something that she said. (For example, the other day while we were talking about El Cortes Ingles, a Spanish version of Macy’s, I thought she said she bought a horse there. So.) Anyway, what a run-on sentence… totally doing my English major a great service here.

The second glaringly different component of living in Madrid is, of course, the language barrier. I’d first like to point out that Mal and I were grossly misled about the amount of English spoken here. I would also like to say that while my writing and reading of the Spanish language are decent, literally no one can understand me because I can’t roll my R’s and because I sound like a moron from the Midwest whenever I speak. (See receipt pictured below.)

Close enough.

Just last night while I was struggling to ask someone for directions, a man behind me overheard, laughed, and remarked, “Chicago.” If we’re being entirely honest, it’s a little frustrating to not always understand or be understood (one of my new favorite phrases is, “No me entiendes” aka “you don’t understand me”, usually paired with a guilty smile). While Laura’s speaking ability and accent shine, the rest of us peasants like to stutter out barbaric sentences and just pray that we said the right thing. However, I have to admit that it’s nice to be able to openly talk about whatever we want in front of whomever we want because we’re almost always sure no one can understand a word of what we say. We talk in a lot of obnoxious text lingo anyway, so probably even English-speakers wouldn’t understand us.

Evidently I’m feeling a little long-winded (what else is new, amirite?), so I’ll shorten things up with a friendly bulleted list:

•  there is dog poop everywhere on the sidewalks, but the dogs are cute so we forgive the madrileños for this (until one of us steps in it, then no mercy)
•  when people attempt to parallel park on the narrow streets, they literally ram into other cars and nobody cares (wish it were the same in the States)
•   public displays of affection are for some reason okay here, even though the last thing I want to do while drinking un cafè is watch some couple get it on
•  water isn’t free
• toilet paper is scarce in public restrooms (and public restrooms are scarce) and if you know anything about me, this really sucks
• people rarely wash their hands after using the restroom and sometimes there are signs that say don’t use soap if you don’t have to, so basically try not to touch any hand railings, tables, chairs, walls, etc., because ew
• sometimes after we eat at a restaurant we sit there for an extra thirty minutes because the waiter isn’t allowed to ask if we’re done (but no tips, so that rocks!)
•  people are generally not looking only at their cell phones on the street and I’m pretty much the only one who walks too quickly, and that’s really nice
• forget what your mom told you because staring is practically mandatory and the two blondies I’m living with sure attract a lot of attention
•  everything happens later and also it’s on military time and math is hard in a pinch
•  Laura just had to enter a code to get into the bathroom at Starbucks so LOL about that

Don’t get me wrong though, you guys, we love it here and have all decided to stay forever. Just kidding, but only about the staying forever part… we really do love it. All of the aforementioned differences from the States don’t matter even a little bit when you compare them with all of the wonderful and beautiful things (and people) here in Madrid, but we really didn’t want to brag and make anyone think that we didn’t miss them, because we do, and also complaining is in my nature.

Let’s hope that by the time I finish typing this Laura and Mal are done pretending to do their homework because it’s 15 o’clock and I am seriously craving some peanut butter.

Beauty Sleep

As we sit back on our freshly made beds (thanks Isabel) and reflect on our weekend we realize how exhausted we actually are. Our time here has been a constant go go go in the best possible way. On Friday, we made plans to meet up with some SLU friends at a local Starbucks to explore the city on foot. Of course, we were lost within five minutes and our stubbornness was prompted by the knowledge of how American we would sound by asking for directions to a Starbucks. After a momentary lapse in direction and quick consultation with a Yankee Candle boutique employee, we were (somewhat) set on the right direction. Finally, we saw the gleaming green letters and our friends sitting outside. The six of us (us three noobs and our friends Lauren, Kaleigh, and Meghan) made our way to Plaza de España where we continued onward into the city, being the most obnoxious tourists to live, ever. After Plaza de España we headed to Retiro Park and Sol. In Retiro Park, we stumbled upon a hidden art museum and a crystal palace.

s

At Retiro Park... what you might call "stunning"

 Suddenly we realized it was cinco (working on my Spanish, guys) o’clock and decided to head back. Of course, not without getting a little lost and enjoying some free churros con chocolate. Much to my and Renatta’s excitement, we spotted a hot dog stand that was in no question a required stop. Considering we get lost every time we step out of this apartment, it’s no surprise that we haven’t managed to relocate the bliss of the hot dog stand. However to our (Renatta’s) amazement peanut butter IS in fact sold at a local market. If you know Renatta you know that this means two things:

1. she completely disregarded the price and 2. she isn’t sharing.

Saturday morning, we were suddenly awoken by Izzy as she quickly clapped and uttered words that of course I didn’t understand. However, my lack of Spanish didn’t matter when I saw the look of horror on Renatta’s face and realizing that, once again, we had slept through our alarms and were late for our trip to Monasterio de Piedra. As we scrambled to get our things together and get ourselves out the door, Isabel tossed us some breakfast and shoved us out the door (as demonstrated by the following video at around 40 seconds, but substitute the snowballs for muffins).

With a LOT of luck we somehow made our fifteen minute walk to school in less than ten and climbed on the bus. Our journey to the Montaserio was a two-hour bus ride aka nap time.

Mal keeping Renatta warm on the frigid bus ride

  This trip included a too long tour of the monastery but was followed by a hiking excursion equipped with waterfalls! Being on a trip with fellow tourists really makes all of us way too camera happy, and Laura, the Queen of Candids once again exhausted her camera batteries. Thankfully, Renatta and I both had ours. Collectively I believe our picture count to be shamelessly high but we continue on nonetheless. That night, we ventured out to an Irish pub and grill, Dubliners, where we were graced by the coincidental presence of Ellen (our previously mentioned girl crush) and met some more SLU students and got an insider’s take on our new home J

The best part of our Monasterio day trip

 As our day trip to Toledo approached, our uncertainty about the voyage increased as well. We remarkably managed to wake up on time and grudgingly made our way to meet the bus with a few minutes to spare… until we reached the door to the outside and realized we forgot our umbrellas, resulting in yet another mad dash to the bus. Sensing a pattern here?

We hopped on the bus (last ones of course) and proceeded to take a mid morning siesta. As we arrived in Toledo we woke up in a fog. Literally. The acclaimed “breathtaking” views of the city were completely blocked by a thick cloud and freezing temperatures. As everyone in the group shivered uncontrollably (Laura currently continues to do so) our tour guide recommended grabbing a coffee to battle the weather. We gravitated to the McDonalds (typical Americans) and then back to the best tour guide on the planet. Minus the fact that his English wasn’t particularly spot on considering he thought that “elaborate” meant to produce. The group of us, 52 to be exact, was guided through the twists and turns of Toledo’s insanely small streets where we learned about the history and culture. Our tour guide stressed that the city housed (relative) peace to groups of Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Also, Toledo has the second most monuments in the world, second to Rome (naturally). We were taken to the Cathedral, mosque, synagogue, and even an underground well-ish thing. Fun Fact there was indeed a reason why we thought that the entire city looked like a movie set. Every Lord of the Rings movie, something yaya and more were filmed exactly where we were. Thankfully, the Sun slowly crept out and the fog lifted to reveal the beauty of the ancient city.

Cathedral Primada in Toledo

 After about two hours of the tour (and Renatta and I literally chanting for food) we said our goodbyes to the guide and were allotted a few hours of exploring time. This meant getting lost again, and with my lack of expertise at reading maps, I decided to document the map reading by taking too many pictures of the girls looking embarrassingly touristy.

This is not fake.

We managed to find our way back to the bus in time and claimed the back seat, the best for napping. The three of us came home to Izzy and yet another dinner where I understand 50% of the conversation (VERY generous percentage).

After the unbelievable past few days, we return to a somewhat reality of classes and schoolwork tomorrow. Here’s to the inevitable “getting lost on the way to the first day of school” post to come.

One last view of Toledo