A Weekend in Madrid

It's the close of my four-day weekend before starting classes tomorrow. At first I was upset that I hadn't known further in advance about this long weekend, considering I could have planned a trip, but since I realized there are only so many weekends in a semester and I already have so many places I want to go, I realized it was better to spend the weekend getting acclimated to the city I'm supposed to call "home".

Although the days of Thursday and Friday of my long weekend weren't of much note (lots of catching up on sleep), on Thursday night I did end up going out to this huge club in the heart of Madrid called Kapital. I wasn't even planning on spending a late night out, but with mentions of free entry and free drinks for girls, I figured I didn't have much to lose (except cab fare). It's important to note here that Kapital is a commitment. With what I'm sure is thousands of patrons and 7 separate floors, it's quite the adventure. Each floor has it's own theme. The 6th is the mojito lounge (where I spent my free drink), the 7th is allegedly a hookah bar (although I saw nothing to suggest that this was true), the 4th a hip-hop club, the 3rd another bar, the 2nd overlooking the first, and the first a gigantic dance floor. It's quite a lot to take in. And yet somehow in this mess I managed to find the only other person from Colgate studying in Madrid this semester here as well! (Molly) A little uncanny to say the least.

Yesterday I went to "take in a little culture". A few of us went to la Reina Sofia, which is a modernish art museum, hosting lots of works from the early 1900s and forward. Lots of Picasso, Dalí, Miró, etc. I saw Guernica up close, but wasn't allowed to take a picture. But some pictures will follow (when I finally upload them from my camera) I promise! After that we went to the Temple of Debod, which is an Egyptian temple that got relocated to this park in Madrid. The park itself overlooks a sort of cliff, so you get a beautiful view of part of the city. (Again, I promise pictures to follow).

Today, I went to "El Rastro". El Rastro is a giant flea market/ street market type deal. It's ridiculously crowded with both vendors and shoppers, and you can find nearly anything. Anything ranges from the typical: Pashminas for 2 euro, bags, earrings and other jewelry, whimsical clocks, artwork, pet cages. There was a guy making Matador posters right there in his stall (although I can't decide if this makes them more or less authentic), as well as lingerie, socks, and even shower heads. One of them was in packaging extolling its Vitamin C powers. I didn't enquire... Also, there was a random guy walking around with a placard reading "SIDA: Saber o Morir" [AIDS: Know or Die], and handing out little flyers. I guess a lot of Spaniards prefer the "morir" option, because they were littering the street all around this area like confetti This (El Rastro in general, not the pamphleteer) I don't have pictures of because it's pickpocket central and I thought carrying less was better. Also, it was amazingly crowded. However the nice thing is that at 5'7" i could still see over a lot of the crowds' heads, so it made it feel a little less squished. I definitely can't wait to go back and actually buy some things.

This evening, I went to a movie. The movie theaters here have assigned seating, so when we bought our tickets we had to also choose what row we wanted (nine). We saw "Up in the Air", which I'd already seen, but it was nice since I already knew the plot and some of the dialogue, so I could really focus on the Spanish and try and understand it without worrying about actually following the main idea.

So goes my weekend, tomorrow I have to wake up at 7am to make it to class before 9! I feel like I'm back in high school....

Hasta Luego!
un abrazo!