I'm ready for bed...

Wednesdays. The bane of my existence. This isn't so much due to what I'm doing, but rather to the chaos and stress that ensues. As usual, the day starts at 7am (which is basically ungodly, because the sun still refuses to rise much before I walk out the door), and I'm out of the apartment by 8am. This is mostly due to my roommate's tendency to be on the early side of punctual (my preference is on-the-dot punctuality), but it works. History is... history, 80 minutes of dates. Today we had "discussion". I said something that I guess was blatantly wrong (I guess my Spanish comprehension of articles isn't so good, so I didn't even get marked for participation. ¡Que desgracia!) Then followed my 3 hour Almodóvar film class.

Today was the first day that we actually watched a movie: "Entre Tiniebles". (In English it's called "Dark Habits"). It was the second of Almodóvar's films, in 1983. Due to sound difficulties in the large auditorium, we were rerouted to a class room with a small television on which to watch it. So although the professor put on Spanish subtitles, it was still difficult to read because it was both tiny, and scrolled quickly. However, I'm pretty sure that language barriers aside, I still would be left extremely confused. This is what I got out of it: A woman named Yolanda is a whore/drug addict living with her boyfriend, who then dies of an overdose in the first scenes. Yolanda, escaping the police, who are looking for her because of drug trafficking, goes to a convent. The convent has some crazy nuns, two of whom do cocaine/heroin. They also have a tiger in the garden. I'm pretty sure some of them are also lesbians and that the Mother Superior is in love with Yolanda. Also, all the Sisters have ridiculous names in Spanish that translate to Sister Manure, Sister Viper, Sister Dirty Street Rat, and Sister "Lost". [Correction: Wikipedia (a highly reputable source) has informed me that Yolanda is actually a "cabaret dancer", but somehow I've managed to hit all the major points. I don't know how that's possible but I guess half the dialogue doesn't really matter after all?]

After the movie we had a "15 minute" break before discussion. However the break was more like 25 minutes, as usual, because the Spanish aren't really all for punctuality, and our professor always gets coffee or food. Today he got an Amstel and a sandwich... even though it's completely normal for Spaniards to have a copa at lunch, it struck us as very bizarre, because a professor would never ever drink a beer straight before teaching a seminar. (At least, not openly).

Unfortunately though, he let us out 10+ minutes late. And I have a class at the Prado Museum (at least a 30 minute metro and 10 minutes of walking), that is supposed to meet 5 minutes before class officially starts, at 3:55. So even though we left straight away, we were running extremely late. (Okay, so the three of us sort of spaced out and didn't pick the most direct route, but I'm pretty sure that the other way wouldn't have saved us more than ten minutes, which wouldn't really help.) So we frantically call/text everyone we can think of in our class, trying to alert them. I was late last time as well and had to pay 8€ to get in... definitely don't want to repeat that. Meanwhile we have to change stops at the point at which we couldn't possibly be further underground. We try and sprint up the escalators, but they're all the extremely tall ones, and oh yeah, there are 5 of them. In a row. It was like we were trying to crawl out of the Earth's core or something. Once back (still underground) in mobile range, we receive a text message back: "Your tickets are under the trash can, next to the police car". Sounding completely absurd, we finally arrive late at the Prado and start frantically looking at trash cans, most of which look very sturdily bolted to the ground. Also the police car has moved. Finally one of my friends spots some tickets a few feet away from a trash can. [Just to be clear on the mental image: three 20-year-old Americans running, completely out of breath, looking around frantically and diving for 3 white tickets just blowing around on the ground, and then bolting towards the door]. We made it though! And once we talked to our professor, she didn't even seem mad. Maybe it was because we looked so pathetic and red-faced and exhausted.

After looking at El Greco and Velázquez paintings for 80 minutes, I finally finally got to take a braek. Although home sounded good and I was planning on going for a run, I agreed to go with my friend to meet some of his Tufts friends (who are studying in a nearby town) at a cafe near the museum. (And anyway, who needs a run after sprinting up escalators and down city streets looking like a moron? In heeled boots, too!) It was nice to try out a new cafe and wander into a different section of Madrid, and they also knew of a place to get cheap and delicious strawberries! (I still can't get over how cheap the produce can be here... an avocado for the equivalent of 2USD? And ripe? How can it be?!) And after a VERY long day, I returned home 12 and a half hours later... and had a dinner of chicken in a light onion-y gravy sauce (delicious) and a soup of rice and chicken broth (eh), and of course, bread.

Now to book some hostels for my upcoming trips. I am going to be traveling the next 8 weekends straight. Dios mio.